How to Train Your Dragon Slayer
by Canadian Aspiring Author
Summary: After an enticing rumour, Team Natsu, Gajeel, Levy, Wendy and Juvia head off to a mysterious and dangerous island inhabited by "Vikings", as these people call themselves. What will they find on this island, and what secrets will be uncovered?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! This is a crossover between How to Train Your Dragon and Fairy Tail. This story takes place after Grand Magic Games and after the second movie of HTTYD. Also, if you see BOLDED print like this in a bracket, then it**'**s an authors note. I use italics for emphasis and thoughts, also bolded for yelling. If it's bolded ****_and _****italic, then it means that I am using a different language, but I don't know how to speak it. For example, the Vikings speak a dead language, so I don't know it. So, ****_you _****can read it and understand, but to the characters it**'**s another language and they don't understand what they're saying. If you have any questions, put em in the reviews, I'll get to you and hopefully I can answer and put your worries to rest **(**without giving too much away!**)

**And now, the disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail nor HTTYD, if I did, I would be adored and the couples would be together a lot sooner. Also I would be richer. Now, on with the story!**

CHAPTER 1.

RUMOURS...

It had all started with a rumour.

While Natsu, Lucy and Happy were all out on a job, they had stopped in at a local pub for a drink before heading home. While there, they had heard rumours of a nearby island that was inhabited by dragons and people.

Immediately, Natsu had sprang up and almost destroyed the pub before being calmed down by his friends. It and taken a while, but Lucy had convinced Natsu to go back to Magnolia so that they could confer with the other Dragon Slayers.

Of course, they hadn't believed them.

Gajeel had just scoffed at them, saying that it was stupid that they could believe a rumour like that. But Wendy just argued that Natsu had met Lucy on a search for Igneel based off of a rumour, and something else just as amazing could happen. (At this, Lucy flushed and stuttered, making herself busy with her drink) Gray, who and joined in on the conversation, stated that Natsu was always flying off after some rumour. Natsu then punched Gray and retorted that he didn't do that anymore. Erza, who had also joined pointed out that Natsu had in fact grown up quite a bit and didn't start running off at the mere mention of dragons. Levy had piped up and said that this was more solid than some of the other rumours that Natsu had heard. First off, more than three people could all agree on one basic fact. Second, it seemed less vague, having said clearly that there was an island that was inhabited by dragons and people.

After much deliberation, Master had given them permission to use the official Fairy Tail ship. So, Natsu and Gajeel were leaning slightly overboard, green and groaning, with Gray laughing at them, Lucy, Levy and Wendy comforting them, Erza and Juvia talking to each other, and the Exceeds hanging out in the crow's nest, keeping a look out. They all dressed warmly (except for Natsu and Gray for obvious reasons, and Juvia, who just wore her regular attire), as they were heading fairly far north, on an isolated island where no one dared to go.

Natsu, Happy and Lucy had recounted the rumours many times for their guid mates.

_On an island, far to the north, almost at the end of the world, where the ocean could freeze over, dwell a violent people called _"Vikings."_ They are plaqued by dragons, day and night. There has been a war, lasting for as far back as the books go, between the two species. There hasn't been contact with the island or it's fierce and...odd inhabitants, except for a trader named Yohan, who had supplied the island with necessities that they couldn't supply themselves with. He told the people of the town of Enstellence, a small gathering of people who had had a more violent past with dragons than the rest of Fiore. He warns them to stay away, as requested by the chief of the tribe himself, Stoic the Vast. Terrified by the stories, people have stayed away. But now..._

The team of Fairies were heading straight towards this island, by the name of Berk.

"Why couldn't we just swim there?" Natsu groaned, barely holding in his lunch.

Lucy kindly rubbed his back, offering him a glass of water and trying to comfort him. "It's freezing cold, Natsu, and incredibly far away. Besides, we were told that these dragons have evolved and are different from the kinds of dragons from 400 years ago. We don't know what kind of dragons and creatures are in these waters..." She gave an involuntary shudder, and not from the cold. She had come face-to-face with the Jade Dragon, Zilconis, and she still flushed in embarrassment at the memory of being thrown naked into a bell with Natsu. She shook off the embarrassing memory, and turned back to the task at hand.

"That's right," Wendy added. "Remember Zilconis? Or Atlas Flame? If these dragons have really evolved like the rumours say, I don't really want to know what they're like now..."

"Gihi, I'm sure that they're not that bad," Gajeel said, lifting his head. His motion sickness wasn't as bad as Natsu's, but since it was still fairly new to him, he had a hard time staying focused and talking.

Levy bit her lip, as if unsure whether it was safe to say what she wanted to out loud. "The Mages back at the town weren't ultimately powerful, and being the closest to the island, that would make them prone to attacks. Why not just send out help, pleading for stronger Mages and better protection? Why not just vacate the town? An abandoned town would be no target. Plus, Enstellence has had it's own dangerous path with these undefined dragons. Why haven't they had any jobs there in so long? Why not just alert the rest of the kingdom, warn them or at least acknowledge their existence?"

"Get to the point, Shrimp." Gajeel groaned. Levy sighed and continued,

"What I'm trying to say is that these dragons and..._Vikings,_" she put emphasis on the word, as if it were alien in her mouth, "Must be pretty terrifying for the nearest town to not even tell anyone of their existence. How did you guys end up there anyway?"

Lucy thought for a moment, then said, "Well, we were doing a job in a town a few miles away. But on the way back, the carriage driver told us that he couldn't take us any farther this way and just dumped us off. Looking back on it, I guess that he must've heard the rumours and was scared to go anywhere near the town... Anyways, we stopped at a local pub to grab something to eat and maybe find some transportation. That's when we heard the townspeople in the bar talking about the island."

Erza and Juvia made their way over. "Why does Wendy-san not use Troia on Natsu-san and Gajeel-kun?" Juvia asked.

"Because," Wendy explained patiently, "it loses it's effect after a while, and in case we need to fight any dragons, we need them to be able to fight, and I can't perform Troia too many times."

"So it's better to have them useless when they're not needed than have them useless when we need them," Erza summed up.

After a moment of silence only broken by the waves and Natsu and Gajeel's moaning, Levy asked the question that everyone was thinking; "What are these Vikings like?"

Everyone turned to Natsu and Lucy, but Natsu was busy trying to not get sick. Lucy shrugged nervously, "I don't know. We tried to ask, but everyone was too scared to say anything. Only that these people could slay dragons without any magic, which is plenty terrifying."

"Slay dragons," Wendy said quietly, "without magic? We couldn't kill a single dragon, even with all of our magic."

Everyone slipped into silence again, each of them wondering what exactly these Vikings and strange dragons could be like.

Suddenly, Happy and Charle flew down, faces worried. "Dragon incoming!" Happy yelled.

Everyone snapped to attention, and Wendy performed Troia on the other Dragon Slayers, quickly rejuvenating them. Within seconds, Natsu was cloaked in flames and Gajeel's skin was transformed into iron scales. Erza had re-quipped into her Heaven's Wheel, Wendy had wind whirling around her, Levy had already written shield, and was preparing to write another word at a moments notice, Gray had gotten into his Ice Make stance, Lucy had summoned Loke, Juvia had the sea swirling around the boat, and Panther Lily flew down from the crow's nest in his Battle Form, holding his now large sword. "It's coming!" He cried out.

It was dark out, and in the distance, the Dragon Slayers could see faint lights in the distance, they seemed to be burning above the water, in great statues that were carved to look like bearded men(**being Dragon Slayers, they have heightened senses**). Everyone could hear a high noise, as if an object was approaching at high speeds. No one, not even the Slayers, could tell where it was coming from, or what it even looked like. Everyone tensed, ready for the blow-

Suddenly, a bright purple light flashed and streaked towards them. Everyone on board ducked as the strange ball of fire sailed over their heads and into the water next to the ship. The high-pitched noise ceased as an air blew over them, signalling that the beast had flown over them and disappeared again.

"Dammit!" Natsu yelled, getting back up. "I couldn't tell what that was, where it came from, anything! These dragons are weird..."

Suddenly, they all heard a male voice cry out "**_Who are you and just what do you think you think you are doing?!_**"


	2. Chapter 2, Wait, What?

**Salve, amicī! That's Latin for hello friends. Anyway, here's chapter 2; my little birthday gift to you. **

**Sorry I couldn't update sooner, I have been really busy with Christmas, and then a hunch if projects, and it's exams right now, so please be patient amicī. The rules are all the same, and if you see any mistakes or you want to share your opinion,please feel free! I'm always up for constructive criticism. (So long as it's not mean. I may be fifteen from today onward, but I am still a timid little creature)**

**ENJOY THE CHAPTER**

Chapter 2

Wait, what?

"**_Who are you and what do you think you are doing?_**"

They all whipped around, staring up at where the voice seemed to come from. They all gasped when they saw a man clad in strange leather armour, who seemed to be sitting atop a piece of darkness.

Not one of the Fairies had understood what he had just said, but Levy had her eyes closed and seemed deep in concentration. "**_Who are you and what are you doing?_**" He demanded again, the Fairies unable to understand him.

They were all staring in awe at the man and his steed. They couldn't see his face, having hidden it behind a leather helmet. (Erza silently complimented the armour and decided that she would have to get a sample of it) He had a slight accent, and his voice was almost young. They couldn't see much of him, even the Dragon Slayers, so they moved on to his dragon.

Yes, he was riding a _dragon. _But not any dragon that they had seen. No, this one was rather small, about the height of a horse and maybe twice as long. It looked like an overgrown reptile. But, don't get them wrong; as strange as the dragon was, it was still plenty fearsome. It was pitch black, had stunning green eyes, and glowed a strange blue-purple. It had ridges on its back and a long, slender tail. It had strange flaps on it, like mini wings, a small pair near the base of the tail and a larger pair at the end of the tail. But, one of the flaps at the tip was red instead of black and had a white skull design on it. The same design that was on the man's armoured shoulder.

The Dragon Slayers couldn't believe their senses. They had searched for _years, _fought dragons from 400 years ago and still gained no answers, and here, though completely different from any kind that they were familiar with, was a real life, living, fire breathing, dragon.

The others were just as appalled and in awe at the sight. Yes, they had all heard stories, and they had all been there when the dragons had attacked, but this felt almost..._different._

The man seemed to take in another breath and was about to say something else, when Levy suddenly shouted "**_We come in peace!_**" Everyone looked at her in confusion. Not one of them had understood what she had just said. But, Lucy realized that the man on the dragon seemed to relax a little bit and realized that Levy must've said something in his language to answer him.

Hiccup was taken aback. He had guessed that they were outsiders, and not like some outsiders, who were also Vikings, like the Beserkers. And non-Viking outsiders didn't speak their language, as they just didn't communicate with the outside world, aside from Yohan. But, he was surprised that one of them knew how to speak it. Yeah, her pronunciation was a little off, and it sounded more like "_We come purple chickens!_" But he got the gist and figured that she actually meant "_We come in peace!_" But that wasn't all; these guys were _crazy!_ His heart had stopped when he saw the pink-haired guy _burst into flames. _And then the black-haired man had iron scales in lieu of skin, the blonde had a glowing whip, the small blue-haired girl seemed to be controlling the winds around her, and the second bluenette seemed to be the one responsible for the sea to be churning dangerously. The red-head was wearing a _very _revealing set of beautiful armour, a hundred swords hovering around her, and the half-naked man (seriously? Even the toughest of Vikings still had layers of clothes in this frigid weather) had glowed with an icy light minutes before, and the third blue-haired girl (_what's with all the weird hair? _He wondered to himself) appeared to be the one who had conjured up the word _Shield. _There was a man who had orange hair and was dressed in a syringe suit. He wore glasses and had spiked hair. Then there were the pets; three cats, one blue with a green handkerchief on its back, a white one in pink skirt and top with a bow on her tail, and a giant black one with green pants and a scar over his left eye, who was wielding the biggest sword that Hiccup had ever seen. Hiccup had seen some strange things in his day (after all, his mom came back from the dead, his dragon was Alpha, and he had kind of discovered the dragon's nest and fought the Red Death almost single-handedly. Oh, and he was the first ever person to see a Night Fury up close who lived to tell the tale), but this took the cake, easily.

Levy was concentrating hard. She had read books in the Viking language before, she just hadn't known it at the time, thinking it was just another language of runes. But when the dragon rider had spoken, she had almost immediately recognized the language. It had taken a moment, and she was pretty sure that her pronunciation was off, but she had been able to translate. She was now thinking of a spell that she had learned after the Grand Magic Games; a spell that enables you to understand a foreign language perfectly, and translate to English in her head. She was just translating the Viking language to match the spell, so that they could all understand each other. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and called out the spell.

The others looked at her as she shouted nonsense. She seemed to be speaking a mix of Viking and English, so neither party was able to fully understand. A light glowed around them for a brief moment, then faded. No one was quite sure of what just happened.

Then, Levy turned to the man in the dragon and said, perfectly in Viking, "Please, we mean no harm. Feel free to come aboard and introduce yourself."

Hiccup was even more surprised than before, but shook it off. These people were dangerous, he could tell, but would they attack him? They seemed that they meant him no harm, as the bluenette had said, but could they be trusted?

Reluctantly, the man steered his dragon to board the ship, and the steed growled in opposition.

"I know, bud." The man said, rubbing the dragon's neck, "But we've gotta try to trust them, right?" The dragon snorted as if to say _Yeah, that'll work out great. _

Almost reluctantly, the rider and his dragon flew down to the ship, landing with a _thud! _on the wooden deck. He took off his helmet and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to make it look somewhat decent for his visitors.

The Fairies were slightly surprised; the dragon-rider looked about their age. He and brown hair and green eyes like his dragon. They were just getting accustomed to his presence when he raised his hand to his mouth, his helmet tucked under his other hand, and let out what seemed to be a dragon's roar.

This definitely surprised the Fairies, as they themselves had heard a few dragon's roars in their time. Heck, while fighting the Oracion Sais, Natsu had let loose an inhuman roar that had knocked Cobra out. Not to mention Sky, Iron, Lightning, Poison, Shadow, Light, and Fire Dragon's Roar. The Fairies were on guard, not quite sure what to expect.

Natsu sniffed the air. "Another one's coming..." He warned his teammates. But before any of them could do anything, spikes flew out of the sky and impaled the deck at their feet.

Instinctively, they all jumped back or flew out of the way, looking tensely for the beast that had produced these spikes.

Then, a blue and yellow dragon that stood on two legs landed on the deck, with another rider on its back. The dragon was so different from the black one, that it was surprising that they were even from the same species, but it was a dragon alright.

It had a large wingspan with a pointed claw at the tip. It had a long, spiked tail that flicked and twisted, as if it were anxious. This dragon had eyes on the sides of its head, turning so that it could look at each of the outsiders properly.

The rider hopped off; a girl about the same age of the other rider, but with blonde hair and blue eyes. She held a double-bladed axe, and had on a mix of furs and armour. She glared at the newcomers, not taking her eyes off of them.

"Astrid!" The boy cried out, "I didn't ask you to impale them!"

"And I didn't," she said simply, "Look, all safe and sound. Just letting them know that we aren't to be messed with." The Fairies glared at her, and a part of her whispered that she shouldn't act so brave. These people were dangerous...

That was when she noticed the oddities. A man with wild black hair had what seemed to be metal scales instead of skin. There was a chick with a glowing whip, three cats with wings, a ginger with weird armour, a shirtless boy, (_really? _She thought, _Is he stupid or something?_) Three girls with blue hair, and a boy with pink hair. There was the word _Shield _that seemed to be made of metal, and sprawled out in front of a small blue-haired girl. The youngest bluenette seemed to have wind spiralling around her. The busty blonde was holding gold and silver keys, looking ready to open any door that came across her path. The shirtless dude stood in a weird stance. An orange-haired boy was dressed strangely, and seemed to be giving her a winning smile. She decided that it would be best if she stayed away from him.

She noticed all this in less than a second, and just as she came to the conclusion that these people were crazy, the pink-haired boy burst into flames. "What do ya think you're trying to pull?! If you're looking for a fight, then come at me!"

Astrid for once had no idea of what to do. She was used to fire, having spent the past five years with dragons and her dragon-trainer expert boyfriend. But someone just randomly catching on fire and not seeming to care; that was a whole new crazy. And she rode dragons on a daily basis.

"No, no!" Hiccup yelled, stepping between Astrid and the newcomers. "We're not here to fight. We don't plan on impaling you guys anytime soon. Right, Astrid?" He shot her a look and she shrugged, stepping out from behind him.

"Alright alright, but that was just a warning shot."

The Fairies looked back and forth from the two. After a brief moment of silence, the brown-haired boy stepped forward.

"Hello, my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Chief of the island of Berk. This is Astrid," he gestured to the blonde beside him, who blew hair out of her face. "And these are our dragons, Stormfly and Toothless," he gestured at the girl's dragon, then at his own, "And we welcome you to Berk."

Natsu laughed and Gajeel snorted, earning glares from their teammates. "Hiccup?" Natsu asked, his voice full of mirth, "Horrendous Haddock? Do you get the hiccups a lot? Or are your fish just bad?"

"And 'the third'?" Gajeel smirked, "Someone named their kid Hiccup Horrendous Haddock _twice _before you? Gihi."

"In all my years, not even I have heard of such strange names, but Astrid sounds like the wind whispering in the branches..."

"Loke!" Lucy cried angrily, "Don't be rude to the chief, and leave Astrid alone!"

"Oh, c'mon Lucy, you know my heart belong only to yo-"

"Go home!" With that, Loke smirked and vanished in a golden light. Hiccup and Astrid shared a look. _Did she really have power over a _god!?

"Gajeel!" Levy cried, "Don't be rude."

"And really Natsu," Lucy said irritatedly, rounding on him now, "I knew that you were immature, but we're kind of invading their territory right now."

"Aye!" Happy chirped, "These people have dragons and scary weapons!" Hiccup and Astrid seemed very surprised that the blue cat had said something. With each second that passed, they didn't think that things could get any weirder, but they kept getting proven wrong.

"I know," Hiccup said, laughing nervously, "They must be strange names to outsiders. But we believe that horrible names would keep away goblins and trolls. As if our charming Viking demeanour doesn't do that already." They all laughed somewhat tensely, trying to break the tension.

Erza re-quiped her armour back to her warm clothes, stepping forward. Hiccup and Astrid were in complete awe. Someone with scales for skin, flying, talking cats, a boy seemingly immune to fire, and now a girl who could change outfits in less than a second. What were these people...

"My name is Erza Scarlet. My friends and I are from the Fairy Tail guild in Magnolia, located in the kingdom of Fiore."

The two Vikings shook their heads. "We don't know a lot about outsider lands," Astrid explained, "We tend to keep to ourselves."

"Well, I guess that that makes sense. I'm Levy, by the way," one of the bluenettes spoke up, "Levy Mcgarden."

"And I'm Lucy Heartfilia," the busty blonde with the whip said happily, stepping forward. Natsu came up behind her, draping an arm over her shoulders. He thrust his other fist into the air on fire, yelling

"And I'm Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel!" The Fairies looked at the Vikings, wondering if they would show any recognition at Igneel's name. But they looked like they had thirty seconds before. Happy immediately jumped up and cried "I'm Happy!" He circled around on his wings, then settled on Natsu's shoulder.

"Name's Gray Fullbuster." Gray said, waving his hand casually. Hiccup immediately slapped his hand over Astrid's eyes. Gray seemed confused, then Gajeel yelled "Nice trunks, Stripper."

"Ah!" Gray cried, hurrying to put his pants back on. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Oh, Juvia does not mind it one bit." Juvia said, her face flushed, "But should Gray-sama really be undressing in front of other women, especially Love Rival?" At this Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, Juvia, I'm not a Love Rival!"

"So," Hiccup said nervously, lifting his hand away from Astrid's flushed face once he was sure that Gray had his pants back on. "I take it that you're Juvia?"

The bluenette nodded and smiled.

"Crazy Rain Woman," Gajeel muttered, "I'm Gajeel. Gajeel Redfox, son of Metallicana." Again he waited to see if the name had any impact in the Vikings, but the result was the same.

"And I am Pantherlily." The large black cat with the huge sword said. With a sudden _poof! a_nd a puff of white smoke, he shrunk to the size of the other two cats, his bulging muscles gone. At this point, Hiccup and Astrid had pretty much decided to expect the unexpected by now. When they saw the cat shrink, they thought _Okay. Sure, why not?_ The man named Gajeel seemed to will his scales to fade away, revealing scarred, pierced skin. The two had never seen such piercings and were wondering why anyone would get piercings on their arms.

"Oh, I'm Wendy," the youngest girl said politely and quietly, bowing quickly. "Wendy Marvel, daughter of Grandeeny..." Again, the dragon's name had no effect on the Vikings, but by now the others weren't very surprised. "And this is Charle." She said, smiling down at the cat she held in her arms. The white cat _humph_ed and stared warily at the two dragons.

"Well," Hiccup said patting Toothless on the head, "It's been a pleasure meeting you all, but what exactly is your business here?"

"We're looking for our dragons!" Wendy said, "And we heard about this island and how they have dragons, so we thought..."

"Hey," Astrid said, bending down so that she was eye-level with Wendy, "We have a lot of dragons here, maybe we can help."

Wendy smiled, "Really?" Astrid nodded, and Wendy gave her a one-armed hug, still holding Charle. "Thank you!" Astrid and Hiccup laughed good-naturedly, and their two dragons seemed to be smiling.

"So," Hiccup asked, "What are your plans now? Do you intend to stay on this shi-"

"_No!_" Gajeel and Natsu yelled at the same time, then glared at each other.

"Don't mimic me, Salamander!" Gajeel growled.

"Well then, don't copy me, screws for brains!" Natsu spat back.

"Both of you, stop it." Erza snapped.

"A-aye!" Natsu said. Gajeel _tch_ed and turned away, grumbling. Unsure of what had just happened, Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other warily.

"You're welcome to stay on the island, so long as you don't burn the place down!" Hiccup said with a laugh. He stopped when he realized that no one else laughed, and the outsiders seemed to all be glaring at Nastu. Natsu, however, seemed oblivious.

"No promises!" He cried happily, "Now get me off this boat!" Happy cried out "Aye!" And grabbed onto the back of his shirt, lifting him into the air. "Race ya!" Natsu yelled, as Happy sped off towards the island.

"Oi! Not so fast!" Gajeel yelled. With a slight sigh, Pantherlily re-sprouted his wings and grabbed Gajeel, following in hot pursuit.

"You should probably go with them," Lucy whispered to Wendy, "They probably won't try anything if you're there." Wendy nodded and gave a small smile as Charle lifted her up as well.

"Hey wait up!" She cried out, speeding after them.

Hiccup and Astrid smiled and mounted their dragons. "I'll go and make sure that they don't destroy anything," Hiccup said, "You escort them, okay?"

Astrid rolled her eyes, but smiled, "Just 'cuz your dragon's Alpha Dragon and you're Chief doesn't mean that you can boss me around."

"Actually it does." He said as he steered Toothless over and pecked her on the cheek. Then he took off, following them at an amazing speed, making the same noise that they had heard before they were shot at.

"Okay," Astrid said as she turned to them, "The island's that way. I'll fly up ahead an- what?" She interrupted herself when she noticed Levy and Lucy exchange a look.

"Oh, it's nothing," Levy said airily, "It's just that you and Hiccup are cute."

After a moment, Astrid laughed. "Glad to know you think so." She looked up at the sail, noticing that there was no wind. "Hmm, no wind. If you want I could go and get some of the others to help me and we could tow you into shore."

"Oh, it's okay," Juvia said easily, "Juvia has got it."

"Um, okay..." Astrid said, unsure. There was no wind, and no way to power the boat, seeing that they had no oars. What exactly was she going to do?

Silently, Juvia walked over to the helm, spread her arms and closed her eyes, apparently concentrating.

After a moment, Astrid realized that the boat wasn't rocking and she couldn't hear the soft lull of the waves against the hull. _Could this girl be controlling the sea? _Astrid wondered. The logical part of her told her that it was impossible. Only the gods could do that, and these people weren't gods, that's for sure.

But she recalled seeing what she had earlier. The boy bursting into flames and being completely unaffected. Gajeel with his metal scales. That woman who could change from armour into a warm outfit in less than a second, surrounded by light. The fact that they could all fluently speak their language, even though it was obvious that they had never been exposed to their culture. Not to mention the strange cats that could fly and talk. Each and every moment that passed, Astrid thought that things couldn't get any weirder and these people couldn't get any stranger, but each and every moment after that assumption, she would just be proven wrong. And it didn't even look like these people were even trying to impress them.

As Juvia seemed to will the ocean to move the boat, Astrid had to admit that she was impressed. She turned to the red-head who had introduced herself as Erza. "Did she do this the whole way here?"

"No, Wendy used some of her magic with the winds to bring us here. They took turns, since it's so draining."

Astrid wasn't quite sure what to make of that. _Magic? _Was there really such a thing?


	3. Chapter 3 Introductions are never easy

**Hello fans (squeals) I am so sorry that this has taken this long, but it is a long chapter and I just couldn't finish it. I always have a hard time with these sorts of "introductory chapters" but I hope that you like it well enough. Thank you for all of the lovely reviews and a special shoutout to Rain of The Forests who has been absolutely uplifting. Again, sorry that it is tardy, but I hope that you can forgive me. I'm always up for questions and criticism. Now, on with the show!**

Introductions Are Never Easy

Hiccup was amazed at how fast that they got to the island. The cats that had carried the three people flew faster than originally thought. Of course, they would never hold up in a race of pure arial speed against the dragons. But still, they were fairly fast.

Hiccup had caught up to them easily, watching as the first two men bickered with each other, the young girl who had introduced herself as Wendy trying to calm them down, only to be ignored.

She and her cat (Charle, if he remembered correctly) were the first to notice his presence and flew over.

"Hello," Hiccup tried.

"Hello." Wendy said quietly and politely, eyeing the dragon nervously.

"So," Hiccup prodded at conversation, "Your dragons, what happened to them?"

"Oh," Wendy said, her face drooping slightly, "They disappeared. About fourteen years ago. We've been trying to find them ever since... Natsu, Lucy and Happy all heard about this island and told us about it. They had heard rumours of dragons so we came here, wondering if maybe you might know them..." Wendy trailed off, staring at the island into the distance, her expression sad.

Hiccup understood her pain. He remembered what it was like when the dragons had all left for egg season in their first year among them. They had been gone for about a week before he had found them. He still remembered looking at everyone, smiling and having fun with their dragon when his was nowhere to be found. Toothless had showed up soon after with Hiccup's lost helmet, but the sadness at the time had been heavy. He knew what it was like when your dragon just up and left, no idea of whether they would return to you or not.

"Hey," he said softly, smiling at the young girl, "It's alright. I'm sure that we can find them. We know a lot of places where there are dragons. They might be on one of the dragon islands, even."

Immediately, her face lit up. "Really?" She asked with such enthusiasm and hope that Hiccup immediately felt bad. "You think that you can really find our dragons?"

Before Hiccup could answer, the white cat scoffed. "He really shouldn't be making such promises. The dragons have been missing for fourteen years. I highly doubt that they could find them after all this time!"

"Well," Wendy countered politely, "You highly doubted that there really was an island of dragons and their riders."

Charle huffed and Hiccup laughed. He still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with the whole talking cat thing, but he was starting to get used to it. He wondered how the others would react...

And before he had been able to say anything more, Berk loomed before them.

It was always an amazing sight, one that always made Hiccup smile, no matter how many times he saw it.

The flames still burned bright in the statues of their past chiefs. They were carving one of Hiccup's father, Stoic. It should be ready in a few weeks. One of the statues was toppled though, just a mound of rubble. They were trying to find a way to fix it, but it didn't seem to be working.

The island that was approaching fast seemed to glow. About four years ago, the townspeople had realized that they didn't need to worry as much about their homes being destroyed on a monthly basis. So, they decided to paint their homes to give them a special look unlike any of their neighbouring tribes. It showed how special and unique Berk was, and the island seemed to glow at night, the bright colours of their houses reflecting the flames of the torches around the island. Giant pieces of ice still glistened here and there, but for the most part, they had been taken to a mountain where it was always colder than the rest of Berk for storage, if they ever had a shortage of water, they could just melt the ice and use that.

The two boys flying in front of them stopped bickering to ogle at the island. Hiccup felt a fierce spark of pride. He, alongside his father, had practically rebuilt Berk and their traditions from the ground up, changing it for the better. At first, the townspeople hadn't been completely on board with their plans. But now, five years after the dragons joined them on Berk, everyone was living peacefully together, their lives a complete 180 from what they were. In a good way of course.

The pink-haired boy, Natsu, looked back with a childish grin. "Is that the island?"

"Yup," Hiccup called back, "That's Berk."

"It's awesome!" He said happily.

"Aye sir!" Happy chimed in.

Gajeel grunted. "Looks crazy." Before a Hiccup could protest, Gajeel turned to him with a smirk, "We'll fit right in."

"Hey, Hiccup's coming!"

"Who's that with him?"

"Dragons?"

"No, it's flying people!"

Questions and proclamations chorused through the square as Hiccup circled and landed in the centre of town.

Immediately, people swarmed Hiccup. Some worried, some excited, some curious. They immediately started asking all sorts of questions and it took a full minute for him to calm them down enough so that he could talk.

"Listen, we have some visitors who will be staying with us for a while. This is Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel," the three grinned, waved, and smirked respectively, "and their Exceeds, Happy, Charle, and Pantherlily." The villagers weren't quiet sure what to make of the cats. Was "Exceed" an outsider word for cat? That's when they realized that the Exceeds had wings. A strange breed of dragon, perhaps...?

And then they talked. "Aye!" Happy had said when his name was called, Charle huffed something about a tom-cat, and the Pantherlily raised a paw and hello said in a deep voice.

They were surprised to say the least.

"Oi, Hiccup," Gobber made his way to the front of the crowd, eyeing the newcomers, "What exactly are they doin' here?" He didn't seem mad, just curious.

"They've lost their dragons," Hiccup said loudly, speaking to the crowd as a whole, "And they've come to us to help find them." The crowd burst into murmurs. Almost everyone had a dragon of their own. They all knew what it was like to live with and love a dragon. They couldn't imagine life without them. A few couldn't even remember what it was like five years ago.

After a moment, Hiccup raised his arms to silence the crowd before him again, "They have friends, and they're on their way with Astrid right now. Their ship should be docking by mor-"

"Ship approaching!" Came a yell. Everyone looked up to see two people with long blonde hair riding a two-headed dragon. The crowd parted so that they could land, and the twins dismounted.

"Ruff, Tuff," Hiccup confronted the two, "What are you talking about? The only ship relatively close is theirs. No other ships are anywhere in sight and the others won't be here until morning at least. And there's no wind," he added as an afterthought. The twins were always playing jokes on everyone and he wouldn't put this past them.

"Well explain the giant ship at the docks," Ruffnut said, "That has the same symbol on their sail as those guys do on their shoulders," She gestured impatiently at the newcomers and they all looked at their shoulders. The murmurs started up again. Most didn't believe the twins, but a few wondered that maybe they could be right.

"Well," Tuffnut said in a false 'cool' voice, "They're coming right now, so wait and see. Then we'll see who was right, and who was not lying, and who was so cool-"

"Alright," Hiccup snapped, "We get it. Can you please go get Astrid down at the docks and tell them to meet us at the Great Hall? And if you see anyone else, tell them to be come too. I want everyone to help these people to find their dragons."

"Okay, Mr. Bossypants." Said Ruffnut sarcastically, mounting Barf, while Tuffnut mounted Belch. They flew off towards the docks.

Hiccup sighed then turned back to the crowd. "To the Great Hall, then!" The crowd moved uphill, towards the biggest and grandest building in the village that could hold the entire population doubled with their dragons. As they made their way up, Toothless walking beside Hiccup, the Fairies caught up with him.

"What's the Great Hall?" Natsu asked with a grin.

"It's a giant hall where we have all of our important meetings, celebrations, meal times, we can fit the population of the island in there if need be. It's basically the main building of the island."

"Neat!" Hiccup smiled at Natsu, who was still grinning childishly. The majority of the newcomers had looked about his age, except for Wendy and Levy, who looked younger than the rest, and Gajeel, who seemed to be just a little bit older.

"So," Hiccup said, wanting to get a few things straight before the meeting began, "We're going to have the whole village with us and we want them to agree to us helping you. I may be chief, but that won't do much good if nobody goes along with the idea."

The six nodded in understanding. They walked on in silence, the newcomers staring at the buildings. Again, Hiccup felt proud that outsiders were so awed by the island. _His _island.

Once they reached the Great Hall, the three Mages and their Exceeds looked up at the giant structure that loomed before them. People were still filing in through the doors that could fit a god. Hiccup beckoned them inside and they followed, people making room for them as they followed Hiccup and Toothless to the front of the great hearth in the centre of the hall.

They stood there, Natsu eyeing the dying flames, as they waited for everyone else to come. The last people to arrive were the rest of Fairy Tail, followed by Ruff, Tuff, Astrid and their dragons. They waved them over to where they stood and they picked their way through the crowd until they stood with Hiccup. He cleared his throat and nodded at Toothless. Toothless spit a ball of purple fire, much like the one that he had used when he had first encountered the Fairies, setting the hearth aflame again and effectively getting everyone's attention.

"We have some visitors who have come to us today, who are looking for their dragons." Again, murmurs burst out among the hall, wondering who these strangely dressed people were...

Hiccup quieted them again, "They are from a land far from here. They came, seeking aid in their search. They will be staying with us for the time being-"

Hiccup was cut off by a voice yelling towards the back, "Did they all lose their dragons? How?" Once again the murmurs arose, people asking similar questions and eyeing the newcomers nervously. Hiccup sighed. He had thought that this might happen. Berk didn't get many visitors, which was fine by them. The islanders liked their privacy, since many other Vikings didn't like dragons. They didn't have squabbles with other tribes. No one was dumb enough to challenge them. Dragons and Vikings were frightening and ferocious enough on their own, but together, it was an enemy's worst nightmare.

This time, it was Erza who spoke up, "No, only three of us ever had any relations to dragons and those three dragons left fourteen years ago. We heard rumours of this island and it's dragons and we hoped that maybe you could help us."

"Who are you, anyway?"called a different voice.

Erza glared in the direction of the voice and the area shuffled nervously. "We are Fairy Tail." She said proudly.

Before the whispers could get too loud, Hiccup stepped in again, yelling to get everyone's attention. "The people of Fairy Tail will introduce themselves!" Hiccup sighed mentally. At least if they introduced themselves, the other islanders might warm up to them.

"Alrighty!" Cried Natsu, who was closest to Hiccup. "I'm Natsu Dragneel!" He grinned, and thankfully restrained himself from lighting anything on fire.

"And I'm Happy!" Cried the blue Exceed who sat on his shoulder. The villagers who had not been in the square when they were first introduced did a double take, wondering if that cat really did just talk. No one at the front of the hearth seemed to be bothered by it, so maybe they had imagined it...

"My name's Lucy." Lucy said cheerfully with a small wave. Many of the male islanders found their eyes wandering to her abnormally large chest. Natsu noticed and slipped an arm around her shoulder, showing off his abnormally sharp canines. Lucy smiled and laughed nervously, knowing it was better to let Natsu be Natsu than say anything.

"Levy McGarden," said Levy shyly. She fiddled with her hair as people stared at her. Thankfully, Gajeel seemed to catch on to her slight anxiety and spoke up.

"Name's Gajeel Redfox." He grumbled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a screw. As Lily introduced himself (the people were pretty sure that the black cat had spoken. They saw his mouth moving and heard sound coming out, but it was odd), Levy grabbed Gajeel's hand which held the screw. He raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush slightly and look down, letting go of his hand.

"Better not," she whispered, so that only his Dragon Slayer ears could hear her, "They might not react well to a stranger calmly devouring solid iron."

Gajeel _tch_ed and nodded, "Yeah you're probably right." As he slipped his hands back into his pockets, fiddling with the loose parts of metal and trying his hardest not to slip them into his mouth.

Next spoke up Wendy, "My name is Wendy Marvel," she said with a quick bow, making the islanders smile. She was so cute and seemed so polite.

"I'm Charle," the white cat in her arms huffed. By now the entire population was completely and 100% sure that the cats were talking.

"I am Erza Scarlet." Said the red head calmly. The crowd didn't know what to make of her. She seemed so serious, but not particularly scary. But still, something about her seemed to raise a red flag...

Next was a shirtless boy and he raised his hand lazily, the other in the front pocket of his pants, "Gray Fullbuster." The Berkians eyed him up and down (especially the female population), wondering who in Odin's name would be shirtless on Berk? Even though it wasn't winter, it was still chilly. All of the other newcomers seemed to be dressed warmly. Well, aside from the pink-jaired one who wore a black vest with one long sleeve, weird baggy pants, and a white scaly scarf. But at least he had a scarf...

Gray wasn't sure why everyone was looking at him weird. "Gray," Erza suddenly hissed, leaning in so she could whisper to him, "your _clothes._"

"Ah, crap!" Gray cried when he looked down and realized that his shirt was missing. The islanders exchanged odd looks. _Did he not have control over his stripping? And what about the cold, wouldn't he notice if he was wearing one less layer?_

"Juvia has Gray-sama's clothes!" Said the last girl cheerfully, holding out a neatly folded bundle. Gray muttered his thanks and took them from her, putting on a blue shirt, a brown belt-thing that the islanders had never seen the likes of before, and a white jacket.

Juvia turned back to the crowd and smiled. "Juvia. Juvia Locksar is my name."*

"Great," Hiccup said, clapping his hands together. "Now you know their names. Next order of- **HEY!**"

Hiccup was interrupted as Natsu, who could no longer help himself, lunged at the flames and stuck his head in them, sniffing at the coals.

Astrid stifled a scream, as did many others. Gasping and worried shouts carried throughout the hall. Then they heard a weird slurping noise and saw that the boy who had introduced himself as Natsu had pulled back and straightened up, sucking the flames into his mouth.

No one knew what to do. Natsu slurped one last time, making sure to leave some fire in the hearth for everyone else, then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Wow, that was tasty! 'Course, not _charcoal _good, but good." He grinned childishly, then was promptly smacked by Lucy. "Ow," he said in an annoyed tone, "What was that for?"

"You scared them half to death Natsu!" She cried angrily.

"Well I eat fire all the time and public and it never bothers them too much..."

Lucy palmed her forehead, "Natsu," she said irritably, "That's because they know about magic, and Mages, and they see the mark on your shoulder and know that you're a part of Fairy Tail. These people don't know about our magic!"

"Oh," he said, rubbing his neck, "Sorry."

"Gajeel!" A high voice hissed and everyone turned to look at Levy, Gajeel and Pantherlily.

"What?" He grunted, shoving another screw in his mouth and munching on it. "Damage's done, if Salamander can eat his flames, then I can eat my iron."

Levy huffed and Pantherlily pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What are you?" came a small voice towards the from of the crowd. Everyone in the hall turned to face a little girl with twin braids, clutching a red Terrible Terror in her arms.

Erza smiled at the young girl, trying not to scare her, "We're Mages. That means that we can do magic."

"Pfft," Snotlout said, rolling his eyes. He stood closer to the Mages, near the front. "Okay," he said sarcastically, "Yeah, so two guys have weird diets. Big deal. Doesn't mean that they're 'Mages'." He did finger quotes around the word, emphasizing his disbelief.

Erza turned and looked him up and down. "Would you like us to prove it?" She asked dangerously.

"Uh," Lucy said quietly, half hoping that Erza wouldn't hear, "Is that really such a good idea..."

"Nonsense," Erza said, a hint of anger beneath her easy tone, "If he wants proof, then here it is. Re-quip!" As she shouted the last word, her body began to glow with a brilliant light making it impossible to see anything but her silhouette, her clothes disappearing. In a heartbeat, her warm winter outfit had been been replaced by a set of armour that was a mash of blue, green, and a spotted animal fur that the islanders had never seen. "This is my magic; I can change my armour to increase my abilities. This is my Flight Armour and it increases my speed." In a flash, she ran, causing a breeze and stood by the doors, a good ten, twenty feet away. She raced back to her spot by the fire, too quick for anyone to see more than a flash of colour flying by, and re-quipped back, looking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Geez Erza, if you're trying to show off, you're not doing it well," Gray said cockily. He smirked, brought his hands together and shouted, "Ice-Make Cold Excalibur!" In a flash of blinding white light and an icy-blue circle with strange symbols, Gray held a giant sword that seemed to be made of ice. "I'm an Ice-Make Mage," he said cooly, "I use Ice Maker Magic, which is the magic of freedom." He slashed his sword through the air, smiling proudly. He flicked his wrist and the sword shattered.

"Juvia is a Water-Mage," Juvia said simply, "That is how we got here so fast. I used my magic power to control the currents to get us here quicker." The others seemed unconvinced. Juvia frowned and felt Gray lean in closer. She flushed and almost melted.

"Show them your Water Form. It'll freak 'em out," he said with a sly smile. Flushing, Juvia nodded and Gray leaned back, looking as if nothing happened. She took a deep breath and willed herself to let go of some of her restraint, becoming 100% water.

The islanders gasped in shock at the blue figurine of water that was standing where the girl introduced as Juvia had stood a moment before. Before anything else could be said, she calmly reverted back to herself.

Levy, now feeling slightly more confident, got everyone's attention by saying "And I'm a Solid Script Mage, which means that I can make words become what they are. Watch!" She took a small breath, and cried "Solid-Scrpit, Iron!" In a _poof! _an iron block, spelling out the word _Iron _with aheart in hole of the _O, _appeared. It was smaller than her usual words and could fit in the palm of one's hand, but everyone in the hall could see it properly. Gajeel smirked and plucked it out of the air, munching on it as he ruffled Levy's hair.

"Your magic sure does come in handy," he said. She flushed and stuttered out a "thank you" which made his smirk deepen.

Beside Natsu, Lucy grinned. "I am a Celestial Mage, which means that I can call forth the spirits of the stars to my side!"

"Weirdo spirits," Natsu mumbled, earning an elbow to the side from Lucy.

"They're not weird!" She snarled, grabbing a silver key from the loop at her hip. She thrust it in front of her, stepping away from the flames and cried out "Open! Gate of the Little Dog; Nikola!" There was a bright flash and the sound of a bell, when suddenly, clutched in Lucy's arms, was a strange white creature with four legs and what seemed to be a carrot for a nose. Lucy turned to Snotlout with a smug smile in her face. "Magic isn't real, huh?"

The man in question, along with his neighbours, were in utter shock and disbelief. These people were getting to seem more and more dangerous. Even Hiccup was surprised. He had had no idea of just what they were capable of, and he got the feeling that they were hardly trying.

Natsu snorted. "You guys haven't seen the half of it!" He promptly burst into flames, fire engulfing his entire body. The Berkians had always been nervous around fire, even now they were fairly cautious with the flames that could spew from a dragon's mouth. They had learned to fear fire, and the destruction that it brought. They had seen people succumb to a hot and burning death. Their funeral rights included setting someone adrift on a small boat and showering it with flaming arrows. And now, here before them, stood a man with all sorts of strangeness succumbing to the flames but being completely unaffected. Even the dragons looked somewhat alarmed.

Natsu, proud of scaring the daylights out of the locals, raised his fist and shouted with a grin; "I am a fire Dragon Slayer!"

That was not the right thing to say.

The islanders gasped and cried out.

"Dragon slayer?" Yelled a big man in the back, his hand on his Deadly Natter's head. "He's a dragon slayer?"

"He's been lying!" Cried out a woman clutching her Monstrous Nightmare's head, "They all have! They're here for our dragons! Why else would they have come here?"

"I agree!" Shouted a terrified boy, clinging onto a Groncle's leg, "We should run them out! Leave our dragons alone!"

This continued and Hiccup tried to get them to calm down to no avail, but was completely and utterly confused. They definitely didn't seem like the type to slay dragons, especially Wendy or Levy. They had all looked fairly surprised when he and Astrid had shown up on their dragons, as if they'd never seen the likes of them before. A Night Fury was understandable, no one, not even Hiccup's mother, Valka the dragon-lady, had seen a Night Fury up close.

He cursed under his breath. He really could've used his mother right now, she was good with crowds and controlling wild, raging beasts. Dragons and Vikings alike. Unfortunately, she had left about a week ago take down any of Drago's roque trappers.

"Astrid," She started at her name and turned to him, her eyes asking a million questions. "Try and get everyone to calm down! I'm going to speak with these guys!" Astrid nodded, and signalled to the rest of the Dragon Riders, who nodded in return and started to try and get everything calm. After a moment, Hiccup turned to them. "What is going on here?" He demanded.

Lucy was repeatedly hitting Natsu over the head with her boot, the weird spirit gone. Gray was mumbling about the "Flame-Brain", with Juvia whole-heartedly agreeing with him. Gajeel was rolling his eyes, with Levy looking annoyed and flustered, and Pantherlily punching the bridge of his nose. Wendy was trying to be optimistic, while Charle huffed and muttered "Well they were going to find out sooner or later, and should we really be all that surprised that he's the one that blurted it out?" And Erza was positively seething. She was the one to answer him.

"Excuse our friend," she said through gritted teeth, shooting Natsu a death glare, "We were trying to figure out how to approach his, Wendy's and Gajeel's magic when he jumped in."

"Their magic?" Hiccup questioned. He hated the idea of any sort of "Dragon Slayer" being on the island, Viking or otherwise. He did not like the idea of the fact that he had bright them here either. And something else was bugging him... When he had talked with Wendy, she had seemed genuinely sad that her dragon had left. Did she hold a certain soft spot for her dragon and her dragon only? And what about the other two, claiming to have lost their dragons? And they said that it happened fourteen years ago. Wendy barely looked that age, and Natsu and Gajeel looked to be in their early twenties, at most. How could they remember their dragons?

Erza opened her mouth to explain, when Levy piped up. "Hey, why don't you tell everyone as a whole? The damage is already done, may as well try to explain it to everyone."

Erza nodded, and Hiccup sighed. "Gimme a minute, he grumbled, turning back to Toothless. The other Dragon Riders had done their best to calm everyone down. But it didn't seem to be working. Angry Vikings were bad, an angry mob of Vikings worried about their dragons' safety was even worse.

Hiccup cupped his hands to his mouth and let out his imitation of a Night Fury's roar. It took a couple tries, and a blast from Toothless, but he finally managed to get everyone somewhat calm again. He gestured to Erza, who stepped forward.

"The term 'Dragon Slayer'," the locals shifted uncomfortably, "Simply means that one uses a rare magic said to be powerful enough to take down a dragon. None of our Dragon Slayers have ever killed a dragon. They are quite attached to them in fact. Wendy, Natsu, and Gajeel are all Dragon Slayers. They use Dragon Slaying Magic and were raised by dragons. We have come here today in the hopes of finding their adoptive dragon parents that disappeared. We mean no harm to your dragons. And if you so wish to turn us away, we will go peacefully." Natsu started to say something, but Erza shot him a glare and he shut his mouth, sticking out his lower lip in a childish pout.

The Vikings looked at each other nervously, mumbling to their neighbours. Wendy then stepped forward, doing another small bow and straightening back up. "Please!" She cried in such sweet a voice that the Vikings couldn't help but soften at, "We don't want to hurt anyone. We just want to find our dragons. My dragon, Grandeeney, left me without any explanation. The same goes for Natsu and Gajeel. None of us know about our birth families and even though Fairy Tail took us in and acts as our family, we still want to find our parents. So please, we need your help." The islanders shifted. She was adorable and they could hear and see the emotion in her voice and expression. It really did seem like they wanted to find their parents. But could they really be trusted?

Suddenly, people quieted and parted, among way for a short, hunched over, ancient woman who had Terrible Terrors flying around her and leaned on a staff. She approached the hearth and the newcomers calmly and seemed unaffected by their strange appearances. A large blonde man with a peg leg and a wooden hand followed behind her.

"Gothi," Hiccup said, bowing his head respectively.

"Thought that it would be a good idea to get her here," the blonde man said, standing beside Hiccup comfortably, "They'll listen to what Gothi says, as the village elder and all. Who knows, she might even know of them."

Hiccup nodded and thanked Gobber, turning to the Fairies. They looked somewhat confused, but seemed to be able to sense that she was highly respected and treated her as so. Erza, who was standing in front of her, dropped down to one knee. Gothi seemed slightly surprised, as this was not how Berkians greeted their elder. She looked up at Hiccup and smiled, her eyes asking for him to explain.

"These people are from somewhere called Fairy Tail and they are capable of doing magic, claiming to be Mages. Three of them are Dragon Slayers," Gothi didn't react, but everyone else from the island shifted nervously at the term, "Called this because they were raised by dragons, learning magic from them called 'Dragon Slaying Magic'. Many years ago, those dragons left. They've been looking for them and their search has led them here. They are asking for our help." He explained.

After a moment, Gothi nodded, turning to Erza, who was still down on one knee, her head facing the ground. Smiling kindly, she tapped her stick against Erza's head softly, drawing her attention. She made a "stand up" gesture and Erza complied. Gothi stared into her eyes, then moved on to Natsu, Lucy and Happy, who were beside her. She went down the line, making eye contact with each of them, even Gajeel, who growled slightly (and was smacked lightly on the arm by Levy) and seemed unfazed. She turned back to Hiccup, and the entirety of the Hall waited with bated breath. She smiled and nodded.

Hiccup turned to the Fairies and grinned. "You can stay!"

*I have no idea how someone introduces themselves in third person. If I did it wrong please correct me


	4. Chapter 4 The First Night

**Hey guys! So here's the new chapter. It should keep you little beasts away for now (waves chair and whip threateningly) I'm just kidding, you're all so lovely. Sorry, it's a shorter chapter but I'm working on it. There will be some surprises and impressed people coming up...**

The First Night

The Fairies breathed sighs of relieved and smiled. Erza nodded respectfully. "Thank you." Gothi nodded, smiling kindly.

Hiccup turned back to the crowd of Vikings. "I hope that you will grant our visitors respect and kindness." After a murmur of agreement, he turned to the Fairies. "Do you plan on sleeping on your ship?"

Natsu and Gajeel suddenly looked rather green in the face. "I don't think that that's such a good idea," Wendy said shyly. "Natus-san and Gajeel are both rather prone to motion-sickness."

Hiccup raised and eyebrow. "Ever tried hammocks?"

Judging by the confused looks on their faces, Hiccup guessed that no, they had never tried hammocks on boats. "Come on, I'll show you." He faced the crowd again, "You may return to whatever you were doing. And remember, dragon race tomorrow!" The people cheered and left the hall with their dragons. Astrid and the other Viking kids, Gobber, and their dragons stayed back.

"So you all do magic?" Asked a buff buy with blue stripes on his chin. He shook his head. "First dragon riders, now Mages?"

Erza nodded. "Yes, we all do magic. And who might you be?"

"Oh," Hiccup said, standing beside his friends, "I didn't get a chance to introduce you. That's Eret and his dragon, Skullcrusher," he gestured to the guy with blue stripes and the big green-red dragon beside him, "You've already met Astrid," Astrid smiled and waved, patting Stormfly on the head, "Fishlegs and his dragon Meatlug," Fishlegs smiled, while the dragon resembling a sausage beside him seemed to purr, "Snotlout and Hookfang," Snotlout smirked, "Gobber and Grump," Gobber waved a wooden hand, "And Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and their dragons, Barf and Belch." The twins cackled mischievously which set the Fairies a little on edge. They made mental notes not to trust them with valuable nor flammable objects.

"What do you two do anyway?" Asked Tuffnut, gesturing to Wendy and Gajeel.

Gajeel snorted, "That's right, Salamander created a riot before we could have our turn in the spotlight."

"I did not!" Opposed Natsu, "Stop lying!"

"Well," Lucy said, rolling her eyes, "It was very nearly a riot."

Before he could round on her, Gajeel laughed. "Gihi. Smarty Bunny Girl tellin' off Salamander." Lucy started to protest, but he ignored her. "Anyways, I do Iron Dragon Slayer Magic, which is the same idea as Salamander's, but with iron."

"And I do Sky Dragon Slayer Magic." Wendy said politely.

"So," Ruffnut asked, looking them up and down, "Have any of you ever killed a dragon?"

The Fairies tensed. Before anyone could speculate, Erza replied with a curt "No."

Some eyebrows were raised, but the Vikings didn't say anything. "Well," Gobber said finally, "I suggest that you lot get to bed. I'll grab some hammocks and meet you down at the docks. You'll want yer sleep, it'll be an exciting day tomorrow. C'mon, Grump." With that, he hobbled out of the Great Hall, the big dragon lumbering lazily after him.

"He's got a point," Fishlegs said, scratching Meatlug, "I say we all turn in. We need our strength tomorrow in the race." The other kids and their dragons followed him, except for Astrid and Stormfly.

"Come on," Hiccup said, heading out of the Great Hall, "I'll take you back down."

The Fairies followed behind the two Vikings and their dragons, staring at the buildings in the village. They were small and quite a few seemed to be in repair. There were some great chunks of ice littered here and there, along with rubble and stray pieces of wood.

"Did something happen here?" Asked Juvia.

Hiccup and Astrid tensed. "Yes," Hiccup said. "A battle, a few weeks ago. But don't worry, it's over now." He smiled to let them know that they were perfectly safe, but the Fairies didn't really care about safety.

"What happened?" Gray pressed, "These pieces of ice are huge. No way that someone could lift them all on their own. And what would ice do anyway? Don't you guys have fire-breathing dragons?"

Astrid opened her south to say something, but Hiccup beat her to it. "It's a bit of a long story. How about we tell you after? Besides, we've got a lot to do. Dragon race is tomorrow and we have to start looking for your dragons..."

"Yeah, dragon racing," Asked Natsu, "What is it anyway? Sounds cool!"

Astrid laughed. "It's the best sport ever. You'll see it tomorrow."

By then, they had reached the docks and they all could see Gobber waiting with bundles in his arms and on Grump's back.

"Glad you made it," he said sarcastically, "I was worried that I would have come down here for nothing."

"So how will hammocks keep us from getting sick?" Asked Gajeel.

"They rock with the ship, so it feels like yer not even moving. Here, I'll show you."

He stepped onto the gangplank and climbed up, with Grump hovering behind him and landing with a loud _thud _on the deck. The others followed him up.

Almost immediately, Gajeel and Natsu turned a sickening green.

"Wow," Hiccup laughed, "You weren't kidding!"

Toothless nuzzled them, trying to see what was wrong. Astrid was smirking. "What's with you guys anyway? How come you've got it so bad?"

"They're Dragon Slayers," explained Levy, "All Dragon Slayers get motion sick. For some reason, Gajeel's only just now started to get sick."

"So why isn't Wendy sick?" Astrid asked.

Charle shrugged. "We haven't the slightest. Dragon Slaying is a rather shady magic that no one really knows a whole lot about."

Lucy nodded, "We're hoping that maybe when we find the dragons, they can answer our questions."

They looked eager and again Hiccup felt guilty. What of he couldn't find their dragons, like he had promised little Wendy? They had been missing for fourteen years, after all.

"By the way," Astrid asked, "You said that your dragons have been missing for fourteen years, right?" They nodded, "Well, no offence, but Wendy, you don't look much older than fourteen."

Wendy flushed. Of course, she had taken it completely the wrong way and crossed her arms over her chest.

Levy picked up on her distress and put a hand on Wendy's shoulder. "It's a bit of a long story and we would love to tell you all about it, tomorrow."

Astrid was suspicious, but she nodded. "Seems fair."

Then Gobber came lumbering up from bellow deck where he had been installing the hammocks, Grump following him. "Righty-oh. They're all hung up, go on and give 'em a try."

Natsu and Gajeel ploughed down the stairs, hoping to get away from the sickness. Their guild mates followed them down, laughing at their sudden speed. The Vikings remained on the deck of the ship.

"Well," Gobber said, "I hope they like 'em. I'm going off to bed and you should too, Chief."

Hiccup nodded. "See you tomorrow, Gobber."

He grunted and mounted Grump, flying away to his house, leaving Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless and Stormfly staring up at the symbol on the sail. If one was creative, it almost did look like a fairy with a tail.

"So how much are we going to tell them?" Asked Astrid after a moment of silence broken by the yelling and crashing of the Mages below deck and the waves against the boat.

Hiccup sighed, running a hand though his hair. "I don't know. It's a lot to take in."

"For them, or for us?"

"Both," Hiccup stared at the symbol a moment longer, then mounted Toothless. "Well, how about one more lap before turning in? Make sure that there aren't any ships filled with mermaids or ogres."

Astrid laughed and mounted Stormfly. "You can never be sure. I mean, we did just find a ship filled with magic using fairies, three of whom are dragon slayers and two of which are motion sick."

"Berk is just full of surprises."

With that, the two flew off of the ship, circling around the island and just enjoying the moment of flying under a thousand stars...

"Woah!" Natsu cried, sitting in his hammock that swayed with the movement of the ship. "I don't feel sick! This is so cool!" He was grinning and gaping at the net with pillows and blankets that he was sitting in.

"Aye!" Happy agreed, "Even in his hammock at home, he gets sick." Happy was bunking with Natsu, curled up on his pillow.

"Then why does he have it?" Lucy inquired. "If it makes him so sick, just get an actual bed." She was sitting cross-legged in her own hammock which was a nest of pillows and blankets. She was wearing her usual pink pyjamas, but these were thicker and warmer and made for cold climates.

"Because I can just make a hammock, but beds are expensive and I have to buy them," Natsu complained.

"Plus it gives him an excuse to come and sleep with you in your bed!" Happy interjected. Natsu and Lucy both started to protest when they were cut off by Gajeel.

"Oi! Salamader! Bunny Girl! It's bad enough that we all have to share a room but I sure as hell don't need the details on your bedroom life!"

"Gajeel!" Charle hissed. He grunted an apology Wendy's way, but she was too busy blushing, burying her head in her pillow and pretending to be asleep.

But it was true; they all had to share one room. The belowdecks had a kitchen, bathroom, and one large open area that could be used to sleep in. The girls had all gone and changed in the bathroom while the boys had changed in the sleeping room. Everybody had a hammock and a personal space, but there was still little privacy. If someone said something, everyone in the room would hear it.

After Gobber had told them that their new beds were ready, Gajeel and Natsu had raced down the stairs to get into a hammock. Natsu chose the one closest to the kitchen, while Gajeel had made a beeline straight for the darkest corner. Everyone was surprised to find that the hammocks in fact seemed to be still. Since they swayed with the ship, it felt like they weren't moving at all. Natsu and Gajeel had quickly recovered from their sickness and tried various ways of trying to do almost everything they needed without leaving their safe havens.

The others had also chosen their hammocks. Lucy was in the one beside Natsu, hoping to keep an eye on him in case he made a break for the kitchen. Juvia was closest to Lucy, wanting to keep an eye on her "Love Rival". She was also closest to Gray, who was in his boxers. Beside him was Erza, who kept a watchful eye on him, lest he make a move to take the boxers off, especially with Wendy in the room. Wendy was closest to Erza, with Charle curled up on Wendy's pillow next to her head. Next to her was Levy, who had successfully blocked out all noise in the room (and the fact that a very shirtless Gajeel was right next to her) in favour of a book. Beside her in their dark corner was Gajeel and Pantherlily. Gajeel was laying sideways on his hammock, trying to fall asleep,despite the still-burning lantern in the room and and the noise. Pantherlily was sitting at his feet, polishing his sword.

"Everyone," barked Erza, "Lights out!" Levy hurried to finish her page and everyone else who wasn't already dozing off scrambled into their preferred sleeping positions before Erza turned out the lantern. After she did, it was pitch black and for a moment it was silent in the room, the quiet only broken by the noises of sea-dragons, waves crashing against the hull, the ship creaking and the wind gently whistling by the portholes-

When suddenly, the room was filled with a great and terrible snoring. It had only been a few minutes, and those who were trying to sleep were aroused immediately.

"Shut up," Lucy groaned into her pillow.

"Who is making that noise?" Demanded Erza.

"It's not Juvia."

"Not me, and it's not Pyro. Pyro doesn't snore, thank God."

"Who ya callin' Pyro?"

"It's not me, Erza-san and it's not Charle."

"Ugh, it's not me Erza. It sounds like it's coming from Levy-chan."

"It's not me. I think it's Gajeel... Hold on a second." In a moment, Levy had written a small Solid Script: Light, just enough to dimly illuminate her corner. Sure enough, Gajeel and Pantherlily were fast asleep, Gajeel with his arm over the side, the other in his hair, his fanged mouth open wide and emitting a sound like a monster truck revving. Lily was curled up at his feet, seemingly undisturbed by the noise.

Everyone groaned. "Hold on," Levy said, groggily getting up out of her hammock. She had been really comfy and warm and now she was cold, "Freed taught me some silencing runes after he heard me sobbing over a book. Come help me Lu-chan."

Reluctantly, Lucy got up and out of her hammock, making her way over to where Levy was starting to write runes with a magical pen. "Here," she handed one to Lucy.

Lucy, being a fellow fangirl and bookworm, had gotten her fair share of noise complaints after reading some good books. After complaining to Levy about all of the noise complaints, she had taught her silencing runes to put up around her room so that no one outside the runes could hear her.

They finished quickly and when they activated them, the snoring was abruptly cut off. The two girls groggily high-fived and made their way back to their hammocks. Levy snuffed out her light and once again the room was dark and silent.


	5. Chapter 5 Dragon Race and Stories

**sorry for the tardiness, my honeys. I was super busy and blah blah blah. But thanks for staying faithful!**

Dragon Race and Stories

Lucy woke up and for a moment had no idea where she was.

Being the daughter of a very rich and powerful man, a Celestial Wizard, and a member of Fairy Tail, she learned to expect the worst. So, waking up to the sounds of the ocean in a dark, wooden room in a net, definitely set off some alarms in her head.

She knew better to scream, so instead she jerked upright, making sure that there weren't any ropes tying her down. After a moment, she realized where she was. She was in a hammock on the Fairy Tail ship. Suddenly, the events of the past twenty four hours came back to her. The dragons, the Vikings, the island, all of it.

She looked around the room and noticed beside her that Happy was curled up on Natsu's stomache, with Natsu's hand dangling over the side, his mouth open but not snoring. She giggled and remembered that time in the guild after Edolas where all of Fairy Tail had passed out drunk and she was the first to wake up.

She decided that she would get first dibs on the bathroom and shower and change. Since it was a magic ship, they had hot water as long as they were on the water.

After a quick shower, she went back out and saw that some people were stirring. Levy was reading a book, waiting for everyone else to get up. She looked really into it, so Lucy let her be. Quietly, she snuck up the stairs and onto the deck where she could see the island climbing before her. Until now, she had almost felt like it was a dream. She had never expected to really find dragons and these ones were so different from any dragon that she'd ever faced. She wondered why. Maybe because humans had started to take over and dragons needed to adapt to their new place on the food chain? After most dragons died or disappeared, did the remainder fly off to desolate islands to make their own ecosystem?

Lucy shook her head. She had so many question and since she didn't speak Draconian, she wasn't about to get any of them answered.

Suddenly she perked up. She remembered Natsu telling her how Igneel had taught him some Draconian. Maybe he could communicate with them and get some answers, but that was assuming that the dragons still knew Draconian. Natsu once tried to explain it to her, as had Levy, who knew how to read and write it, but not speak it. It was a complex language that no human could do perfectly. It involved a lot of body language like tail flicks, wing stretches and head cocks. She wondered if Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Roque could understand it too...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a dark shadow passing over her. Lucy looked up and saw Gobber on his dragon.

"Well I'm glad to see you're well," he said, dismounting onto the wooden deck.

Lucy smiled at him, "Yeah, especially since you put in those hammocks! They work wonders and kept us from having to put up with all of the moaning and groaning and vomiting."

"Happy to hear it. So anyway, Hiccup sent me to fetch you guys. Didn't want ya to miss the big race!"

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "Yeah, he said something about that last night... What is it anyway?"

Gobber laughed, "You'll see soon enough. Hurry up and get ready, the dragons won't wait for long." And with that he flew off back to the village, leaving Lucy on the deck.

She shrugged, curiosity and excitement burning thorough her. She went back below decks and was bombarded with yelling.

Everyone else had gotten up and several people were fighting for the bathroom. Someone had knocked Natsu out of his hammock and he lay on the floor, an alarming shade of green making up his face. Gajeel was laughing at him from his hammock, Pantherlily looking exasperated but slightly amused, and Levy read, unbothered by the noise around her.

With a sigh, Lucy helped Natsu back into his hammock. After he was sitting upright again, she scanned the room for Erza.

Erza was bickering with Juvia over the bathroom, which was locked. They yelled at each other back and forth until the bathroom opened and Wendy and Charle came out. Juvia and Erza both raced for it, but Juvia got there first, shutting Erza out.

Erza groaned and kicked the door as Lucy made her way over. "Good morning, Erza," she tried.

"Good morning Lucy," Erza replied, "It looks like you've been up for a while."

Lucy nodded, "I got up early and decided to make good on the empty bathroom."

"It seems that you were the smartest," Erza growled under her breath.

"Oh, well anyways, Gobber just came by-"

"The one with one leg and one arm?" Asked Gajeel. He was still sitting in his hammock, but he heard them over the noise.

"Yup," Lucy called, then returned to Erza, "He said that the race would start soon and that we should hurry up."

Erza's eyes widened. "Thank you, Lucy." Then she turned to the rest of the group and barked "Be ready in five minutes! We are to be in the village in fifteen!"

Quickly everyone scrambled around, getting dressed. The remainder of the girls changed in the bathroom and the guys changed in the main room. After five minutes, everyone was standing on the dock, Gajeel and Natsu still looking green.

They made their way up to the village, awing at the village. It seemed different in the daytime. At night, the torchlight had reflected off of the colours on the houses, giving off an effect of glowing. Now however, the sun brightened the colours and made the whole island seem louder. It was bustling with excited Vikings and dragons.

People stared at them as they passed by. Not in a rude way, but as if they were curious and not quite sure what to make of them. One little boy pulled on his mother's sleeve and whispered very loudly "Mommy, look! It's the Mags!"

The Mages found this very amusing, especially since the mother didn't correct her son. Perhaps the islanders had thought that they had said "mags", or maybe they just didn't have a word for that in their vocabulary. Either way, it was entertaining.

After a while, Fairy Tail seemed to realize that they had no idea where they were going. Gobber hadn't specified as to where this event was taking place. And even if he had, they still would have no idea as to how to get there. Yes, the village was relatively small, but the bright colours made it loud and confusing, giving the illusion that the village was bigger than it actually was.

Suddenly, a shadow passed overhead and Hiccup swooped down on Toothless, landing smoothly.

"Good morning," He said cheerfully. "I take it that you're lost?"

"No" and "Yes" were both answers, the "no"s coming more or less from the boys and the "yes"s more or less coming from the girls.

Hiccup laughed and dismounted Toothless so that he could walk beside them. "Here, just follow me."

They walked to the edge of the village where it was cut like a crescent. The stones held stands in which Vikings chatted anxiously and excitedly, awaiting the race. There was what seemed to be a bridge spanning the gap between the two edges of the crescent with five nets at equal intervals with different colours. There was a black square standing upright with a picture of a Night Fury's head on both sides, indicating Hiccup's net. Beside his was a blue one with a Deadly Nadder, representing Astrid's, and three more in yellow, green, and red.

at the scented of the stands was a podium, the perfect spot to watch the race, apparently. The was one high backed chair carved ornately out of wood with colours. Beside that chair were eight simpler chairs. Hiccup directed them over there and each of them took a seat. The chairs weren't very comfortable, but Ea hissed at them that they should all be very grateful for their seats.

"People of Berk!" Hiccup boomed with Toothless standing tall beside him, the crowd falling silent, "Let us welcome our outside guests, this being their very first dragon race!" Cheers erupted from the audience and Hiccup gestured with his hands to calm them down. "Tomorrow, we will begin the search for their long lost dragons! But today, we race!" The crowd cheered again and Hiccup made no move to quiet them.

After some whisperings from the Mages, Erza, who was the closest to the throne of sorts, stood up and whispered to Hiccup, "How exactly does this race work?"

Hiccup laughed, "You'll see." Then, he jumped off of the platform, giving the Mages a fright, followed closely by Toothless. Toothless caught him moments before the water and they pulled up together, Hiccup on toothless's back. "Riders!" He barked.

The other four dragons seemed to appear out of nowhere, zooming over housetops and rocks and people. They flew above the crowd, high-fiving the people until they landed in front of each of their nets on the bridge.

"Always the dramatic one," Astrid chided. "You nearly sent them to Valhalla!" She jerked her head in the direction of the chief's podium, on which Gobber had now joined the Mages,

"I have a feeling that they don't scare so easily," he replied back easily.

Astrid opened her mouth to say something, but was cut of by Gobber yelling "Riders, on your marks!"

The dragons and riders both took on an air of competitiveness, eyes forward. "Get set!" The riders clung close to their dragons, hands held on tight to whatever kept them mounted. The dragons leaned back, preparing for takeoff. "Go!"

There was a burst of wind as the dragons flew off of the bridge, soaring over the stadium at amazing speeds.

"Wow," Levy muttered beside Gajeel, hugging Pantherlily (the Vikings hadn't thought to put out chairs for the cats, seeing as they were cats, which didn't bother them. Besides, Pantherlily only acted like he didn't like Levy's hugs).

"Wow indeed," Pantherlily replied. "I never thought that a dragon could move so fast. Acknologia, as big and powerful as he is, isn't all that fast. Gajeel," Gajeel grunted at his name, munching on some spare iron that he had brought along, "I'm sure that you've seen Metallicana fly before. Was he fast like this?"

Gajeel swallowed his iron and thought. He still had his eyes on the dragons that were now just specks in the distance, "Yeah, he actually let me ride him once. He's pretty fast, but I've never seen him go all out. Still, I don't know if he could keep up with these guys..."

Further down the line, Natsu was leaning forward in his seat, keeping his eyes on the dragons. "I still don't get it," He mumbled.

"Neither do we, Flame Brain," Gray replied, "But we'll find out soon enough."

Natsu was about to reply when suddenly the dragons came whizzing back. It seemed that Stormfly was holding a big white fluffball in her claws, with a painted target on it.

"Cotton balls?" Wendy asked beside Gajeel and Natsu.

"No," whispered Lucy, who was on Natsu's other side and Happy was jumping up and down in her lap, "I think that's a sheep..."

As the dragons approached, the others snapping at Stormfly, trying to get the object in a playful way, they realized that it was, in fact, a sheep. They flew over the bridge and Stormfly dropped the sheep into her net on the bridge. Astrid let out a loud whoop and Toothless kicked at what seemed to be a weathervane nearby as they flew around again.

Gobber suddenly laughed, "You lot look a little confused."

"A little," Erza admitted. "Care to explain?"

Gobber chuckled a little more before answering. "There are fifteen white sheep on this island that have targets painted on them and each is worth one point. The dragons have to nab the sheep as they're racing and collect the most."

"So whoever has the most sheep wins?" Juvia asked from beside Gray.

"Aye, but there's a trick!"

"A trick?" Charle asked curiously from Wendy's arms, "What sort of trick?"

Gobber's eyes gleamed, "The black sheep?"

"The black sheep?" They all echoed back.

"Aye. There's one black sheep on this island that has a target painted on it and we throw it up into the sky using a slingshot. The black sheep is worth ten points and signals the end of the game."

"I see," Pantherlily thought out loud, "So whoever takes the black sheep takes the game?"

"Not exactly," Gbber replied, his voice laced with excitement, "Once, Astrid caught eleven sheep while the twins, Fishlegs, and Snotlout had the other four dispersed among them. Hiccup showed up at the last minute and snatched the black sheep, but since he has none prior, he couldn't keep up with Astrid. Now _that _was one for the history books!" He laughed.

The Mages understood the game and were lost in their own thoughts, each coming up with their own strategy. Suddenly, they were wrenched back to the present with the dragons approaching fast and the crowd cheering. Both Toothless and Barf and Belch had a sheep in their claws. They were making a break for their nets, the other riders fanatically trying to take the sheep from them.

Snotlout sat on top of Hookfang's neck, approaching Hiccup quickly. Toothless wasn't going as fast as he could, since he didn't want to hurt the sheep when he dropped it into the net. Going at terminal velocity and throwing it in could harm it. Snotlout took advantage of this lack of usual speed and snatched the sheep from under him.

"Oh, sorry Chief, was that yours?" He taunted.

"Yeah,no problem though, I'll be taking it back." Hiccup replied easily. In a flash, he unhooked his leg and steadied Toothless's tail. He hopped off, pulling the flaps out of his suit and sailing overheard Snotlout, using his speed to snatch the sheep from him. As he glided over the nets, he dropped the sheep in as Toithless caught him underneath. They sailed upward again, Hookfang kicking the weathervane, off in search of a new sheep.

Meanwhile, Astrid was fighting the twins. Fishlegs actually seemed to be intervening, pushing her higher and higher up, out of reach. As the twins drew closer to the net, Astrid, in a desperate attempt, copied Hiccup's move and jumped, catching the sheep that the two were arguing over. She caught it and threw it into the net as she flew by, heading straight for the water.

Like a flash of light, Stormfly caught her by the leg and swung her up so that Astrid could climb back into the saddle, ready to return to the chase.

"Hey," Lucy suddenly noticed, "Where's that Eret guy? I thought that he was one of the riders..."

"I am," Drawled an older man's voice. They all turned to see Eret and Skullcrusher climbing the steps to the podium.

"Then why aren't you in the race?" Wendy asked innocently.

He laughed, "Not my style. I'm more about work and I'm not quite good enough to be riding with them. Besides," he jerked a thumb at his dragon "Skullcrusher is string and powerful and heavily built, but not the greatest for racing."

"Understandable," Erza replied thoughtfully.

"So what brings you here?" Gobber asked him cheerfully, "You're hardly ever watching these sorts of things."

Eret shrugged, "Better to watch from above. That, and I'm too busy fixing things up, cleaning up after the Chief!"

"Ya don't have to do that, you know."

Eret sighed in an endearing way, "I know, but I owe it to them. Anyways, I'm here because I just did a patrol of the island. I noticed something, a small flash, in the forest. I checked it out, but nothing was there. Except, I did find this."

Then, Eret pulled out a something wrapped in cloth from one of Skullcrusher's side packs. He uncovered it, revealing it to be a mirror fragment.

"A mirror?" Levy asked.

The Vikings looked at her. "You know what this is?" Eret questioned, placing it into her hands, "I mean,I've seen my reflection like that before, in metal or in water or ice or something of the sort. I've never seen something that reflects it so clearly. When I first saw it, I thought that it was an actual eyeball!"

"You mean that you guys don't have mirrors?" Juvia asked.

"Nope," Gobber replied, "Never heard of em. What do they do, exactly?"

"They're looking glasses," Levy prattled off mindlessly, "You use them to see your reflection."

"Why would anyone need that?" Gobber asked incredulously.

"It takes a lot of time and patience for a girl to do her hair," Lucy said wisely, "Mirrors allow us to see what we're doing and how it looks."

"So what's it doing on Berk?" Inquired Eret, "No one on this island uses mirrors," he stumbled over the word a little, as it was in English.

"Could it have washed up?" Gray asked.

"No," Eret shook his head, "I found it in the middle of the forest. We tried tracking them, but Skullcrusher couldn't find anything."

"You can track people with dragons?" Happy asked in awe.

"What did you expect? Natsu had to get his sense of smell from someone!" Lucy said with a laugh. The others joined her, except for Levy, who was studying the mirror. She ran her thumb over the reflective part, then flipped it over.

On the backside were characters. They looked English and Levy had no trouble reading them.

"videt omen quid caecus versatus sum..." She whispered. Suddenly, the mirror started to glow on both sides and Levy dropped it with a yelp. Quickly, she grabbed her headband and wrapped it as best as she could so as to cover the light. She hugged it close to her body and bent over, trying to conceal as much of it as she could.

"Hey," Gajeel noticed first, "Wha-"

"Close your eyes and don't look!" She snapped, loud enough for them all to hear. Everyone on the podium shut their eyes. After a moment, the glow faded and Levy straightened up. "I think we're okay."

Slowly, everyone opened their eyes, Gajeel, Lucy, and Pantherlily's filled with concern.

"What in Thor's name was _that?_" Demanded Eret angrily, "Was that thing deadly?"

"No, probably not," Levy replied.

"Probably?!" Gobber said with a laugh.

"From the sounds of it, it seemed to only make those who saw the light blind."

"And how do you know that?" Asked Eret slowly.

Levy turned the mirror over to the plain side, thumbing it over. There were no more words, even though they had been scratched in. "It's an old language," She answered after a moment, "I learned it a long time ago. It translated as 'All who see be blind', so I took it as a blinding spell of sorts, activated by the words."

"Do you remember what it said?" Pressed Lucy.

Levy nodded, "Yes. videt omen quid caecus versatus sum."

Eret shook his head. "I've been a lot of places, but I've never heard that language before."

"Wait," Gobber interrupted, "You said that this was a spell of some sort. So you mean to tell me that the is a Mage on this island? That we don't know about and just happens to show up at the same time as you?"

"I know what it sounds like," Erza reasoned, "But we have no idea what's going on either. I assure you,the only Mages that we were aware of that came to this island was us. Hopefully this is just an old relic that we happened to stumble upon. In fact, I'm glad it was us, because some people could have gotten seriously hurt."

Eret sighed. "Either way, that thing could still be dangerous. Best that I take it somewhere safe and talk to the chief about it later."

Levy handed him the shard and with that, mounted his dragon and flew off towards the main part of the village, staying out of the way of the other dragons.

Gobber seemed to be counting the sheep in the nets. While they had been talking,they had missed a few drops by the racers.

"Fourteen," Gobber declared, "one more until the black sheep!"

Suddenly, the dragons appeared again, battling over the one sheep that Toothless had clutched in his four claws. He put on a burst of speed, sending him ahead of the others and slowing down just before the net to drop the sheep safely in.

The people cheered and Gobber hobbled off. A second later, a loud horn could be heard blowing throughout the island. The villagers, and the Mages too, couldn't help feeling more excited. The dragons flew around, searching for something when-

A small, black shape was launched straight into the air by some invisible force. The five dragons raced towards it, gathering speed and trying to catch the black sheep. Toothless was first, but he got tangled up with Hookfang in their desperation to reach it. Toothless dropped the sheep...right into Astrid's waiting arms. She flew straight to the net, making a bee line to victory. The others were struggling to catch up, Hiccup and Toothless gaining speed. Just as Hiccup made a mad grab for the sheep, Astrid three it down into the net cheering as she flew over the crowds' heads.

The Mages cheered from their podium, whooping and yelling at the dragons and their riders. Although not all of them paid attention the whole time, they were excited and awed by these creatures and what they did.

The riders dismounted, Hiccup and Astrid flying over to the podium to escort their guests. "Well done, milady," Hiccup said with an air of sarcasm.

"Why thank you, Chief Hiccup," she replied in an equally playful tone. They turned to the Mages.

"That was amazing!" Wendy gushed, even Charle looked impressed.

"Awesome!" Natsu cried, pumping his fist in the air.

"I'm glad that you liked it," Hiccup said proudly, scratching Toothless's head, "It's something that we came up with a few years ago."

"Speaking of which," Erza smiled slyly, "You still haven't told us the story of how you made friends with these dragons."

"And you still haven't told us any of the adventures that you spoke of," Astrid replied with a pointed look.

Hiccup slapped his hands together, "Well it looks like we have a little bit of a story telling on our hands! Let's head to the Great Hall, we Vikings love hearing tales of the outside world that aren't from Yohan." Hiccup and Astrid both laughed, and the dragons looked amused. The Mages were confused but weren't expecting an explanation. Hiccup waved his hand, "C'mon, I'm sure that you're hungry. We have plenty of food."

Almost on cue, Natsu's stomach grumbled. Lucy laughed, "Are you sure about that? I doubt that you could supply this bottomless hole." She jabbed a thumb at Natsu.

Astrid laughed easily as they led the Mages through the village, "I'm sure that it's nothing that we can't handle."

"Don't bring out anymore," Hiccup whispered to one of the villagers that worked in the kitchens, "Natsu alone will eat all of our stores!"

Hiccup and Astrid had thought that the travellers had been joking about Natsu had a big appetite, but they had been serious. He ate plate after plate and even munched on some flames from the central hearth (although Hiccup was getting more and more used to these Mages, he didn't think that he would ever just be able to watch Natsu eat flames without being hurt or just the fact that he could chew and digest such a thing as flames). He seemed to never be full. Hiccup wondered if this was some form of a joke.

"Does he always eat this much?" Astrid, who was beside Hiccup, whispered to Lucy, who was on her other side, Natsu beside Lucy.

"Yes," she said with an endearing sigh, "Believe me, when we first met, I thought that he was only eating that much because I was paying, but no. He really has an endless appetite."

"When you first met?" Questioned Astrid with a sly smile, "And you two ate while you payed? Sounds suspiciously like a date."

Lucy flushed and waved her arms frantically. "No no no, that's not how it went. See, I met this really sleazy Mage who put me under a love charm and Natsu broke it and so as thanks I took him and Happy out for lunch. Then the Mage tricked me into going to his boat party and tried to sell me plus a bunch of other girls as slaves in a far off land but Natsu helped me escape so I could fight back, saving him from his motion sickness on the boat. Then he beat the Mage and brought me to Fairy Tail."

Astrid met Hiccup's eyes with wide ones. "Wow," she said in an impressed tone, turning back to Lucy, "That's quite a story of first meeting!"

"Yeah," Lucy said with a smile, "Then I joined Fairy Tail and it all went downhill from there. But," she leaned forward with excitement, "We want to hear about this village. You've gotta tell us how you guys came across these dragons and managed to make them into allies." She gestured at Toothless and Stormfly, who were lying beside each other by the hearth, among other dragons.

"Well," Hiccup started, rubbing the back of his neck, "It's a bit of a long stor-" he stopped short when he realized that everyone at the table had perked up, eager to hear his tale. Even Astrid was smiling encouragingly. He couldn't help but smile back, remembering how different things had been five years ago. Astrid beat him up, if she managed to talk to him at all. And he had been bent on killing a dragon...

"Okay," He said, sitting more comfortably in his chair, "It started one night when we were attacked by dragons. Around here, killing a dragon was everything. It got you status and honour and respect. I was always a little different. I was smaller and I spent most of my time in the forge, making and fixing weapons. As the chief's son, I felt pressured to be the best Viking. But, my mindset was different. Instead of working in becoming stronger, I built machines to do strength in my stead. On that night, I snuck out of the forge with an invention of mine that threw weighted nets with great accuracy. Well, with some minor calibration issues," Gobber, who had pulled up a chair to listen, along with Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, laughed

"Anyways," Hiccup continued with a slight chuckle, "Dragons had different ranks so to speak. One of the tougher dragons to kill was the Monstrous Nightmare," Snotlout smiled proudly, "As they had this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. Only the toughest Viking went after those. But there was one dragon that never stole food, was never seen and never missed. The Night Fury!" Toothless perked up a bit, his pupils wide and playful. He shook his head then lied back down after a moment, like a lazy cat. "No one had ever killed one of those, and I would be the first. So I took my machine and shot it when no one was around and I actually hit it! Of course, the only one around to see was a roque Monstrous Nightmare. I ended up letting several dragons escape along with a whole herd of sheep and set half the island on fire while I was running away."

"Oh," Gibber said with a hint of sarcasm, "Don't be so hard on yourself. It was more like a third."

"Thank you, Gobber," Hiccup said with even more sarcasm as everyone at the table laughed, "So after getting lectured by my dad, I went out searching for him..."

As Hiccup told his story, the other Vikings interjecting every now and then to add in a detail that he missed, more and more people sat around their table,until the entire Hall was listening to the tale that they all knew so well but had never heard from the Chief himself, at least from start to finish, all details included.

"-And after the Bewilderbeast left, Dragon,left to the clutches of the cold sea, we picked ourselves up as best as we could and I was made chief. As you have seen though, we still have a little bit of work to do." Laughs and chuckles were emitted from the surrounding Vikings.

"So let me get this straight," Gajeel said as he munched on some spare iron (with every crunch, Gobber cringed, unbelieving that perfectly good iron was being used as a snack), "You took down the most dangerous and mysterious dragon, set it free, befriended and rode it, became the best dragon fighter, stood up to your people, killed a big evil dragon, changed the island completely, found your long lost mother who was living with dragons, confronted a crazy, dragon-obsessed, bloodthirsty dude with an army of armoured dragons, lost your and everyone else's dragons after your father was killed in battle, flew in on baby dragons, beat the Alpha, Toothless becoming the new Alpha and you the new Chief of Berk?"

Hiccup nodded, "About sums it up, yeah."

Gajeel sat back, "I'm impressed."

"We all were," Astrid said with a smile, "Now we're all curious about your stories. I want to hear all about your lives. We don't get many stories, that are good anyway." Everyone shuddered, remembering Yohan's terrible stories.

The Mages shared some looks. "Are you sure?" Erza asked cautiously, "Our lives are very..._complicated._"

"Pfft," Snotlout scoffed with a dismissive wave of his hand, "How complicate can it be?"

"Yeah," Ruffnut added, "We were in a war with the dragons for generations until five years ago. We know crazy."

"And I became a dragon rider," Eret interjected, "We've all been through insane things."

The Mages shared looks with each other, "All right," Lucy started, "I guess that it all started with me joining Fairy Tail. After I met everyone and went on a few missions with Natsu, Erza came and requested that Natsu , Gray, and her team up. Happy and I tagged along to make sure that the two boys wouldn't kill each other when Erza wasn't looking. It turns out that there was this death flute created by a famous Black Mage named Zeref who had lived 400 years ago. It killed anyone who heard it and a dark guild by the name of Eisenwald had planned to kill all of the guild masters at a convention. We had to battle them, Erza and I against the majority of the guild, Gray and Natsu sent off to find Eregor, who was the mastermind behind it all." Lucy went on about the death flute and how it had actually been a demon from the Books of Zeref. They had managed to defeat Eisenwald and stop the Lullaby from killing their beloved guild masters. She went on about all of their adventures, like Galuna Island and Deliora, at which time Gray piped up and told them about his past. They told of Phantom Lord, Lucy telling her past and Gajeel stubbornly and ashamedly looking anywhere but at Levy. Then there was the story of how a guildmate of theirs had been a Celestial Spirit all along and became contracted to Lucy. They spoke of the Tower of Heaven, when Erza told them about her childhood and how she found Fairy Tail. Then there was the story of how Laxus had gone on a rampage, then how they teamed up to defeat the Oracion Seis and met Wendy, who told her story. They spoke of Edolas and how they made friends in other worlds. They talked about Tenrou Island and all that befell them. They talked about being gone for seven years and coming back to the Grand Magic Games and the weird time stuff that happened there.

When they had finished, everyone was silent, the only noises coming from the crackling hearth and snoozing dragons.

Finally Gobber spoke up, "So, what yer saying is that you defeated an evil musical instrument that was created by a an evil god of sorts, fought another demon made by the same god, fought another Mage guild and won, found out a comrade was a spirit from the stars and saved his life, stopped a childhood best friend turned evil from resurrecting the evil god, made friends with the bad Mags guild, fought your own comrades, defeated a "dark" Mage guild with six powerful members, went to another world and saved it, were stuck on an island for seven years after an attack from an evil dragon and an encounter with the not-so-evil god-Mage and his followers, then fought in a grand magic tournament which ended in time magic and dragons from 400 years ago?"

The Mages looked at each other and smiled, "Yep," Levy said cheerfully, "That about sums it up."

The Vikings in the hall had on a range of expressions. They were shocked, in disbelief, awed, confused, impressed, frightened, amused, and many others. They didn't quite know how to react to these tales. They had thought that since they lived with dragons peacefully, there wasn't too much out there that could totally weird them out. But then the Fairies sashayed in with their fantastically tales and left them dumbfounded.

"And everything before you all joined..." A motherly Viking holding a child asked softly, "Is that all true too?"

The Mages collectively nodded. "Unfortunately," Erza said with a heavy voice, "They are. But our stories helped shape us and make us what we are today."

"That's right," Lucy agreed, "If my father had been kinder to me, I might never have joined Fairy Tail at all and never met these great friends!"

"And hey," Gajeel said callously, "If our folks hadn't ditched us, then we never would have learned Dragon Slayer Magic and never met you guys."

"Well," Hiccup sighed as he got up from the table, "I have duties to attend to, so I will leave you to your adoring fans. I trust that you know your way back to the ship?" The Mages collectively agreed and Hiccup went over to Toothless, Astrid in tow.

The look on her face suggested that she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what. They gently woke their dragons, plodded out of the Great Hall, mounted them, and took off to what had become their spot.

It was a small cave nestled in a cliff looking out at sea. It was a perfect vantage point to see if any trespassers or invaders were on the horizon. They had actually been there two nights ago when the Mages had first arrived. They had been flying and decided to take a break, noticing the single white sail with an alien symbol...

As they landed gracefully in the cave, Stormfly and Toothless lit up the fire pit in the middle as Hiccup plopped down at the mouth, his legs dangling over the sea, hundreds of feet below. Astrid sat down beside him and started playing with his hair, as she had taken to doing.

Finally, she said, "I guess it makes sense."

Hiccup laughed, "What does? You're going to have to be slightly more specific, especially considering I've heard the strangest set of stories in my entire lifetime."

"Well," Astrid said with a slight laugh, "It's the fourteen years thing. That little girl, Wendy, hardly looks fourteen and the others, apart from maybe Gajeel, don't seem too far from it. The oldest of them has to be twenty, maybe. But being stuck in a suspended state for seven years..."

"It would match their stories and Wendy's age." Hiccup finished. "Yeah, it definitely makes more sense now. I had been wondering that too."

"Do you think that they could be lying?" Astrid asked cautiously after a moment. "It's just that not very many people visit us, not even other Vikings since we made peace with the dragons. I don't know, it just seems a little hard to trust outsiders, especially when their stories are so wild."

"I get what you're saying," Hiccup answered,staring out at the sea thoughtfully, "But the way that they told their stories, there's just no way that someone could make that up. And as far and wide as I and my mogher have been, there's still so much to see and experience. We have no idea what the outside world is like and what's happening. For all we know, the Apocalypse could be raining down upon the world as we speak."

"That's true," Astrid admitted, braiding little bits of Hiccup's hair. "But those stories were so dark and sad and twisted. One girl is an escaped slave, the other an orphan with a father that used to vocally abuse her, of them children had no parents to start with and even the cats are from another world."

Hiccup nodded, "I know. It's pretty dark, what's in the outside world."

"Don't even think about it."

"What?" He accused, turning to look her in the eye, "I wasn't going to do anything!"

She pointed a finger at him, "You have that look in your eyes."

"What look?!"

"The one you get whenever you find something new and dangerous and you want to learn about it."

"I-I do not have a 'look!"

"You do and sometimes it's very attractive, but right now it's feeling me out."

"Why is if freaking you out?" Hiccup asked with a sigh.

She leaned back, "Because this 'magic' business seems dangerous, and that's coming from the chief's girlfriend who rides dragons for fun. I think that we should leave the magic to the Mages. They seem to know what they're doing."

"But you have to admit, it would be pretty handy to be immune to fire and even eat it!"

Astrid sighed in exasperation, "Yes, it would be pretty useful. Maybe later you can show him your flaming sword. Stick to dragons and machines and being chief, you've already got your hands full with those things.

Hiccup smiled as Astrid rested her head on his shoulder, "Ugh, didn't remind me."


	6. Not actually a chapter LEMME TELL YA SOM

I am so sorry to have gotten your hopes up about a new chapter, but this is me, the author, talking to a Guest's review.

I KNOW THAT DRAGONs SPEAK FREAKING ENGLISH AND THAT THEY'RE A HIGHLY INTELLIGENT SPECIES AND IT'S SPECIES NOT SPICES IF YOU WANNA HARP ON ME THEN AT LEAST RE READ IT GOSH.

The thing that I am trying to communicate on this story is that the dragons _evolved. _Because humans started taking over, the few dragons that were left of the world went to a small corner to repopulate. They ended up changing and becoming smaller, faster, and less intelligent. Instead of speaking different languages, they only spoke the native language of the dragons; Draconian. It's a head canon of mine that in Fairy Tail, the dragons spoke their own ancient language along with a whole bunch of other ones. This was implied and YES I know that the dragons spoke English (technically Japanese if you watch subbed) but a lot of dragons chose not to stoop so low as to speak the language of humans, eg Acknologia and six of the seven dragons at GMG. Do you think that dragons just went around screeching at each other? No, they probably had a huge, complex language and they were smart enough to write it down. In lots of other stories, dragons have languages. And dragons, like EVERY SPECIES ON THE PLANET, has their own complex language. But dragons are SO SMART that they could learn other languages if they wished. Human lovers like Igneel learned the language of the humans, which they later taught to their kids. But dragons speak different languages, and these dragons on Berk aren't as smart and cunning as they used to be, so maybe they are only capable of speaking the natural dragon tongue. They had to adapt to their place on the food chain. So _yes, _the dragons like Igneel and Metallicana and Grandeeny and them are crazy smart. But these new dragons like Toothless and Stormfly are still smart, but not intelligent enough to be able to do the things that they used to be able to.

that's might have been confusing to some people, so I thought of clearing that up. So I guess, that you, random Guest. I hope that this I as been informative and not too offensive.


	7. Chapter 6 the Search Begins

**Well, hello my sweetums. Sorry about that last **"update"** but I had to speak to a guest and I couldn't contact them otherwise. Thanks for not unfollowing my story. Sorry it's taken so long, you are all very lovely and patient and I love you all to bits. So here it is, where things start to get intense. Wooooooo.**

The Search Begins.

Lucy was, once again, the first one up.

She had made it almost second nature to get up early, or to at least be a light sleeper. Whenever there was a party at the guild and everyone stayed overnight, she was always the first one up. If Natsu ever broke into her house to sleep with her, she always woke up early to give him a nice kick (sometimes a Lucy Kick, or maybe no kick at all. Depended on her mood). And since she was raised as a lady, she had to be up bright and early. Of course, since joining Fairy Tail she no longer got up at the crack of dawn on a regular basis, but old habits died hard.

The first thing that she was aware of when she awoke was that her hammock's ropes were pulled tighter than usual, and it felt heavier and warmer. When she sat up to inspect, a tanned, muscled arm flopped over her lazily, tugging her back down into the hammock. Lucy squeaked and fell back down, realizing _exactly _what, or more specifically _who, _was in her bed.

Natsu, somehow in the middle of the night, must have crawled out of his hammock and into hers. It was only about two feet away, but she still didn't understand how he had made it with the rocking of the ship and his insane motion sickness. She heard him mumble something about fire and Igneel and Lucy. Lucy flushed and scrambled out, the lazy, sleepy arm griping the place where she had laid tight.

She sighed. Natsu looked cute when he was sleeping, all peaceful and relatively quiet. His eyes were shut softly and every now and then they would scrunch up and he would frown, but then he'd smile and his face would become relaxed again. His pink hair flopped over onto his face, a little strand just hovering in front of his mouth, swaying with his rhythmic breathing. His scarf was tied up to one of the ropes that kept the hammock up. Natsu never slept with a shirt on, unless they were on a job. He would just wear a version of his white pants; baggier without the ties at the bottom, like jogging pants. They were made of really comfy material, and Lucy had been tempted to steal a pair. It was only fair, as he and Happy barged into her home regularly and devoured her food and messed up her house and slept in her bed.

Lucy shook her head, gathered her clothes for the day, remembering that they would be searching for dragons, and changed in the bathroom.

While she changed, she couldn't help but feel excited. She had heard so much about Igneel and Grandeeney and Metallicana that she couldn't wait to meet all of them. She had to keep reminding herself not to get her hopes up, as the dragons had been missing for fourteen years without a trace. Some facts didn't add up about their disappearances and the connection to the island, and the odds were against them, but Lucy couldn't help feeling a little confident. If there was a single geographical location where the dragons might have been hiding, this would be the place.

She tiptoed out of the bathroom, surpised to see no one awake. She did notice, however, that some sleeping arrangements had changed since they all went to sleep the last night.

Juvia had climbed into Gray's hammock (thank goodness she was wearing pj pants and a shirt rather than her normal lacy nightgowns). She was snuggled right up next to him, a content, peaceful smile on her face. Gray was snoring lightly and was lying spread-eagled with his left limbs hanging off the edge. His right arm wrapped around Juvia protectively, but other than that he seemed to be completely unaware of her presence. Lucy thought it was cute that Gray, even in subconscious, was protective of Juvia. He would claim to have zero feelings towards her, but no one was about to forget the whole fiasco with Lyon at the Grand Magic Games. When Lyon had first met Juvia, he had declared his love for her on the spot. He had been bugging Juvia for a short while and Gray seemed to be relieved for a few moments of quiet. But when they met again in Crocus, they had all heard of the bet between the two rivals. If Lamia Scale had beaten Fairy Tail, then Lyon would have insisted on Juvia joining him in the guild. People speculated about how Gray had immediately gotten defensive and almost turned down the bet. And Lucy would always giggle at Mira and Jenny's match, at the one round where everyone joined in as brides and grooms. Lyon had picked Juvia up, only to be kicked by Gray who swooped Juvia off of her feet...who ended up tackling him in a bear hug, but still. Lucy also remembered how Loke had shown up and proposed (as usual) and dropped her right on top of Natsu. How embarrassing.

Another change, she noticed, was that Pantherlily seemed to have switched hammocks. Instead of sleeping at the foot of Gajeel's hammock, spread-eagled like Gray and drooling, he was curled up in Levy's arms, who in turn curled up around his tiny body. Levy scrunched her face up in a little grin, with Pantherlily smiling contently. Lucy noticed how Gajeel seemed to be leaning toward Levy (and now Pantherlily's) hammock. His one arm draped over the side, his fingers brushing the floor. There was nothing drastic there, although Lucy would definitely ask about it later. Erza had remained where she was, as had Wendy and Charle. Natsu and Happy were still curled up in Lucy's hammock, fast asleep. She decided to let them be rather than kick them awake. Natsu must have really wanted her hammock if he was able to hobble a few feet and climb in. She would give him credit this one time and let it slide.

Lucy rummaged in her bag quietly, trying to see if she had packed a book. Unfortunately, she had been in a bit of a rush when they left, so she had only packed a few essentials, forgetting the current book she was reading back home on her nightstand. She sighed and decided to go above deck once again, just to see what she could.

She climbed up the stairs and blinked in the morning sunlight. It was warm, but not warm enough to heat up the island 's cold weather. Even though it was spring on Berk, it was still very cold. That was the one thing that she couldn't stand about Berk. Lucy remembered her missions on Mount Hakabe and how she would start out in warm, sunny Magnolia and trek up the mountain in below freezing temperatures. She still shuddered at the memory of a cold three days on the mountain with Natsu and Happy. They had gotten lost in a living ice cave with no food and they had all started to go a little crazy from lack of food and sleep. If it hadn't been for Natsu's flames, they would have surely died. At least on Berk there was always shelter and a relatively friendly face to welcome you.

The island was already bustling, even though the sun wasn't fully up. Dragons were preparing to take off along with their riders and some boats. If Lucy had to guess, she would say that they would be heading out to go fishing for the day. Dragons fluttered around the island, some carrying huge chunks of ice and rock, others with wood supplies, whiles still others flew around with no obvious purpose.

Soon, Lucy spotted Toothless and Hiccup, hovering in the sky as Hiccup shouted orders and directions at riders while Toothless seemed to be doing the same to the dragons.

As Lucy continued to watch the island, Levy came up behind her, dressed and ready to go.

"Good morning, Lu-chan," she chirped happily.

"Morning, Levy-chan." Lucy replied, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," Levy answered mindlessly, "Pantherlily snuck in with me. He's really cuddly."

Lucy smirked, "Oh, I bet he is. And Gajeel doesn't notice?"

Levy shook her head, "Oh he does. He often grumbles about it, but he doesn't do anything other than complain about the matter. He just reminds us that Pantherlily is _his _cat, and we better not forget it."

"Hum, the way that you're implying this makes it sound like it's happened on multiple occasions. Besides, I don't think he minds as much because it's you that Pantherlily likes." Lucy had a playful, accusing tone to her voice.

Levy flushed and stuttered, "W-well I'm sure that, uh, if it was you, or, or, uh, Wendy, he still wouldn't mind and sometimes, er, we go on missions together and, and, sometimes Pantherlily sleeps with me. Uh," she looked at Lucy, who was giving her a knowing smile. Levy narrowed her eyes and smirked in reply, "What about you and Natsu? I noticed that he and Happy were curled up in your hammock this morning. I doubt that it was empty when they climbed in."

Now it was Lucy's turn to be disgruntled. "Uh, um, well, I felt bad for Natsu and, I, er-"

"Good morning," Erza interrupted, much to Lucy's relief.

"Hello, Erza," The girls both replied. Erza joined them at the railing of the ship and watched the island and its inhabitants.

"It's amazing," Erza said thoughtfully, "Isn't it?"

The other two girls nodded in agreement. The three began a small conversation about the dragons and how useful they were to the island and wondering about what it would be like if dragons were to come to their continent like the old days.

After a while, the Exceeds, Wendy, and Juvia came above deck to join them. After an exchange of morning greetings, Erza turned to Juvia.

"What's going on with the boys?"

Juvia sighed, "Gajeel and Natsu were bickering when Gray-sama insulted them and now they're fighting."

"But how?" Levy asked, "We're on a ship. Gajeel and Natsu can't stay out of their hammocks for more than a minute before getting nauseous."

"Well," Wendy said endearingly, "They're not leaving their hammocks. They're really just yelling at each other."

"Well," Erza said, "I suppose that they had better get ready." With that, she walked down stairs belowdecks and disappeared. The girls and Exceeds left on the deck of the ship stared out at the island still looming above them.

While they watched, they noticed Hiccup and Toothless staying in the same spot. Suddenly, they heard a noise that seemed to be coming from them. It sounded like a dragon's roar being imitated by a human. Several dragons rose up to meet the Chief and the Alpha, some of the dragons recognizable. From what the Mages could see, some of the dragons were Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch, Meatlug, and Skullcrusher. A few unknown riders were with them as well. Hiccup seemed to yell a command and they all started flying towards the ship.

"I suppose that's our summons," Pantherlily stated.

The dragons descended to the docks and landed where their ship was tied off.

"Good morning," Hiccup greeted loudly as he and the other riders dismounted, "Glad to see you survived the night. Permission to board?" He gestured at the gangplank that connected the ship to the dock.

Lucy smiled, "Permission granted."

Hiccup gestured for the rest of the Vikings to follow him and they lumbered up the gangplank, the dragons waiting on the docks.

"You've met a few of my friends here," Hiccup said casually once everyone was up on deck. The younger Vikings that the Mages had already met waved, grinned, or smiled. All of them seemed to be present; Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and Eret.

"These guys," Hiccup gestured to the older Vikings that the Fairies didn't recognize, who smiled warmly, "Are villagers who volunteered to help in the search."

"I thought that everyone was supposed to be helping." Gray said casually as he walked up on deck with Erza, Natsu, and Gajeel, and without a shirt. The girl Vikings couldn't help but to look at his bare and very attractive chest. Fishlegs and Snotlout looked slightly distressed (they were still competing for Ruffnut's affection and Eret had been a recent bump in the road. She was over him now, but now these attractive, half-naked Mages came in and ruined everything.) Hiccup also noticed Astrid eyeing Gray, who seemed oblivious to the staring.

"Hey," Hiccup complained quietly to Astrid, who was standing beside him.

"What?" She replied playfully, "I'm allowed to appreciate a human's body. It doesn't always have to be yours."

Hiccup chuckled, "Oh," he said in an equally playful tone, "I see." He turned back to Gray, "We can't take all of the villagers. We still have an island to defend and fish to be caught and yaks to be milked. We have a village to run. But don't worry, while we're out searching, the others are keeping their eyes peeled for anything strange or stuff not usually noticed, especially the fishers."

Erza nodded intelligently, "Makes sense. And are we to be introduced?"

"You already know us," Tuffnut said stupidly, "I'm Tuffnut, and this is Ruffnut, the lesser twin."

Ruffnut punched him, "She meant the volunteers! And if anything, _you're _the lesser twin."

While the two started to bicker, Hiccup cleared his throat.

"This is Alva," he gestured to an elfish-looking woman who was skinnier than most of the Vikings that the Mages had seen so far and she carried several daggers on her person. She had a tricky grin and slightly pointed ears. She smiled sweetly when introduced, "Erling," a noble-looking Viking with a lot of furs and an axe slung over his back smiled smugly. He had a tall build, strong like all Vikings, but taller than most, "Freja," A petite Viking smiled and waved bashfully, a bow and a full quiver sticking out over her shoulders, "And Hackett." Hackett was a tall, relatively good looking man, except for his oversized hooked nose. He growled slightly and thumbed the sword hilt in its sheath at his waist.

There was a quick exchange of hellos and greetings as the two parties shook hands and greeted each other.

"Now let's go on a dragon hunt, whoo!" Natsu shouted and pumped his fist in the air, then returned to leaning over the side, green, with Gajeel beside him in the same position.

"What's with them?" Hackett asked.

Levy smiled, "Our friends are a little, uh, motion sick. They don't like transportation much."

"And will they be alright on the dragons?" Eret asked skeptically.

"They should be," Lucy answered, "But if not, Happy or Pantherlily could always carry them."

Hackett raised an eyebrow, "The cats? Are you telling me that they can fly?"

"Yes," Both Lucy and Levy replied at the same time.

Hackett and the other volunteers seemed surprised.

"And," Freja asked timidly, "They can carry those two?"

"Aye, sir!" Happy joined in, "If I can carry Lucy, I can carry everyone easily!"

"Are you calling me fat?!" Lucy cried indignantly, "Get back here ya stupid cat!"

Happy flew just out of Lucy's reach, crying "Ahhhh! Natsu save me, Lucy's gonna eat me!" But unfortunately for Happy, Natsu was busy being sick over the side of the boat.

Meanwhile, Hiccup, Gray, Erza, and Astrid were hovering over Hiccup's map, deciding on a route and formation.

"Maybe over here," Erza pointed to a place on the map.

"No," Hiccup said, "I've been there. It's just plains and small villages. We could cover this area though, it's all mountains. Something could be there."

"Maybe we could check somewhere with a lot of fire or iron or something tall? The dragons might be someplace where they can get access to their own element." Gray said.

"Good point," Astrid agreed, gesturing to a place on the map, "Here are fire mountains, and these are some old mines. And this mountain range goes up past the clouds. There could be a good start."

"But they're so far away from each other," Erza noted, "Should we split the group up? It would be faster."

Hiccup shook his head, "No, splitting up is bad. No way to communicate. Unless..."

"Unless we Mages have something magical that can communicate over long distances," Gray finished.

Erza sighed in exasperation, "We have a communication Lacrima, but only the one,so it's useless in this situation. We really could've used Warren right about now."

"Warren?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah," Gray said offhandedly, still staring at the map, "He uses Telepathy Magic, which means that he can communicate to anyone within a certain range using his thoughts."

Astrid and Hiccup didn't quite know what to say. So they went back to looking at the map and trying to figure out a route.

Alva was talking to Wendy and Charle, asking all about their magic.

"... and I can heal people." Wendy finished off.

Alva was impressed, "Wow, I never thought that your magic extended so far and had so many different branches. And you're still learning?"

Wendy nodded, "Mm-hmm. I have yet to even enter Dragon Force, which is like an ultimate power up for First Generation Dragon Slayers. And I'm still learning some new spells, and I haven't really gotten to practice Milky Way..."

"Milky Way?" Alva asked, "What's that?"

"Oh," Wendy replied, flustered. She wasn't used to explaining her magic so explicitly, "Well, it's a spell that can be used to summon dragons' souls after they've passed."

Alva was impressed, "So you can bring dragons back from the dead?"

Wendy shuffled her feet, "Well, no. I can bring back their souls, or more their thoughts, for a short time. During a tournament back home, I used it to make contact with a dragon long dead in order to get answers."

Alva nodded, "Makes enough sense." She continued her conversation with Wendy and Charle, asking about her magic and what else she could do.

Meanwhile, the twins, Snoutlout, and Fishlegs were talking to Juvia.

"Why is your hair such a weird colour?" Tuffnut asked rudely.

"Juvia's hair is perfectly normal!" She huffed.

"I think it's nice," Ruffnut said, "But how did you did you get it like that?"

"This is Juvia's normal hair," Juvia said nervously, "Juvia was born with this."

"Really?" Fishlegs asked, "I would've thought that you coloured it or something. Does everyone with you have natural hair?"

Juvia looked slightly confused, "Yes. Why?"

"I wonder," Fishlegs said out loud, "If the hair colour changes with the homeland..."

"Nobody cares, Fishlegs," Snotlout said offhandedly. Before they could get into a fight, Hiccup and Erza called everyone over.

Everyone huddled around the map, minus Gajeel and Natsu, who were listening from afar, leaning over the railing of the ship.

"Okay," Hiccup said, "This is what we're going to do. Today, we search some old mines. They became unusable a few generations back, but I think we can navigate them. There's a chance that one of your dragons might be there, as those mines hold large stores of iron."

Gajeel perked up, "Iron?"

Erza nodded, "Yes, we could very well find Metallicana there."

"But what about Igneel?" Natsu complained, "Aren't we going to look for him too? Why does Gajeel get his parent back?"

"Because the mines are closer, Flame-brain!" Gray snapped.

"And if we find one dragon," Astrid reasoned, "They might be able to tell us where the others are."

Natsu looked like he wanted to say something,but he was too sick to do so and went back to groaning over the railing.

"Tomorrow," Erza continued, "We'll look in these volcanoes," she gestured to the map, "And search there for Igneel."

"Volcanoes?" Fishlegs asked, his brow furrowed, "What is a volcano?"

"Oh, right," Levy said, "You guys don't have a word for that. A volcano is a fire-mountain."

There were some understanding "oh"s from the Vikings.

"And then if we still don't find anything," Hiccup continued, "We can look in these mountain ranges. They reach up to the sky, past the clouds."

"Sounds like a good plan," Hackett said, "But who's riding with who?"

"We're figuring that out now," Hiccup replied. He turned to the Mages and asked, "Can any of you fly, other than the ca- sorry, Exceeds?"

"No," Was the collective reply. Hiccup nodded.

"Alright. So we have ten dragons at our disposal and eight Mages, plus three Exceeds. For how long can the Exceeds fly?"

Pantherlily shrugged, "Depends. In this scenario, we could fly for hours. But we would have to rest every now and then, otherwise our magic would give out completely."

"It should be fine," Charle said, "Since those iron mines aren't too far away from here. "

"Okay," Hiccup said, "Then find a partner and mount up."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Erza stepped forward. "May I ride with you?" She asked Erling.

He shrugged, "I do not mind. Come, meet Victor." He and Erza walked off the boat and into the docks where the dragons were waiting.

The others followed in Erza's steps.

"Is it alright if I ride with you?" Lucy asked Hackett.

He nodded, blushing slightly, and gestured for her to follow him. They walked off of the ship and toward the dragons.

Everyone in turn paired off; Levy with Fishlegs, Juvia with Eret, and Gray with Alva. Everyone mounted their dragons and the Exceeds took hold of their partners, spread their wings, and lifted off the ship (much to Gajeel and Natsu's relief).

"Alright," Hiccup called, "Get up and follow my lead!"

Almost simultaneously, the dragons started to flap their wings and took off, following Toothless and Hiccup, flying off towards their first destination.

They had been flying for nearly two hours.

The dragons were fine, but the Exceeds were staring to tire a little bit. It was hard work flying in such frigid temperatures. At least when they went to Tenrou, it had been hot and the breeze created by their movement and the height had been welcomed. Now, they braced themselves against the cold.

The Mages as a whole weren't doing much better. They had all packed warmly, but it was still chilly. Juvia was feeling stiff because the cold temperatures kept trying to turn her to ice. As it was her body, she could keep in control of it, but it was getting annoying and she found that she couldn't move as much. Gajeel had faced the same problem earlier.

To try and keep warmer, he had summoned his iron scales. For a while it had worked and he had been very proud of himself. After a while, however, he started to feel stiffer and had a very difficult time moving his joints. He realized that it must have been the cold freezing the iron, so he changed back to his skin which was colder but more comfortable.

Natsu didn't have a prolem at all. His body temperature was a lot higher than usual every day, so he found himself being immune to temperatures. Gray was unbothered by the cold, as he was an Ice Mage. He had had to run around in his underwear in colder weather than this, in sleet, hail, and snow. This was a walk in a winter wonderland for him.

The Vikings had become very accustomed to flying in cold temperatures. It was normal for them and they were unfazed by it.

Suddenly, in the quiet flapping of the wings and the wind whistling by, Hiccup yelled "There! Up ahead!"

"Up ahead" Were the old mines. As they came into view, the searchers saw that it was a mountain range riddled with holes. They stopped towards the peaks, for the Vikings who had mined the ore had had no means to go higher.

They all veered in the direction and landed in the mouth of a particularly large hole.

The light from the opening allowed them to see where they were, but after about ten feet, it was pitch black. Not even the Dragon Slayers could see.

The dragons were uneasy. They fidgeted and glared off in the dark, growling deep in their throats. This also made the Vikings and Mages uncomfortable. They too glanced behind them or in the corner of their eyes. If the dragons didn't like the place, then it couldn't be a good sign.

"Okay," Hiccup said loudly, gesturing for them all to close in. Everyone calmed down slightly but was still fidgety.

The group formed a circle around him, the dragons peering over their heads.

"This is where we split up," He started, "Each of us will take a path with a partner and search for clues."

"But what if we find something?" Levy asked, "How will we alert the others?"

Hiccup picked up a nearby stick and started drawing in the dust that covered the floor. He drew one big circle, then several circles around it, lines connecting them all, "All of the tunnels are connected," he explained, "Sound carries through them. If one person gives the signal, everyone will hear it."

"Signal?" Gray asked.

"Right," Fishlegs said, "You guys wouldn't know the signal!"

"Our signal is us mimicking a dragon's roar," Astrid explained, "Like this." Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and made a sound similar to Hiccup when they had first encountered him on the boat. It did indeed sound like a dragon.

"Um," Wendy asked, "How do you do that?"

"It's easy," Snotlout said, "You cup your hands like this, then you kind of growl and yell at the same time."

He demonstrated for them (even though there was no real need) and the Mages nodded.

"Like this?" Erza asked. She stepped forward, cupped her mouth, and imitated the sound almost perfectly.

Snotlout nodded, obviously impressed. "Yeah, you got it."

"Why don't you all try it?" Hiccup offered, "Just to get a feel of it."

The Mages each tested theirs out.

Lucy had been a little timid at first, but then Happy commented on how she sounded like a dragon when she was mad, and produced a formidable roar the second try.

Levy's had been quiet and weak. Gajeel snickered in the background, which seemed to give Levy inspiration, because when she tried again, it came out as a proper roar that left plenty surprised. Lucy and Pantherlily, however, seemed to be smiling smugly.

When Wendy tried, it accidentally came out as her Sky Dragon's Roar. There had been no damage, just a very strong gust of wind. Thankfully, they had been aiming down the tunnel in case something like this happened. Wendy apologized and tried again, this time successful, though a little on the quiet side.

Juvia had been a little nervous doing hers. But nonetheless she cupped her hands and let out a deafening roar.

"Wow," Gray had commented, "I'm surprised, that was pretty impressive." Juvia was very proud of herself.

Gray went and let loose a very loud roar, only to be scoffed at by Natsu.

"You think you can do better?" He snapped.

"You bet I can!" Natsu said excitedly. He stepped up to the place where the darkness started to settle in and took a deep breath. He held it for a moment, then let out an inhuman roar, not even bothering to cup his hands. It lasted for a moment longer than everyone else's, and the party covered their ears. They were surprised by the sudden volume and dragon-like character of the roar. Sure, their roars were made to mimic dragons, but they could never get it just right.

After Natsu stopped, he turned around to face the others with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Pretty good, huh?"

"Isn't that the same one you used on Cobra?" Lucy asked.

Natsu nodded, evidently proud of himself, "Yup."

Gajeel snorted, "Bet I can do better." Then he too stepped up, took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then let loose a roar to rival Natsu's. "I win," He said smugly after he had finished.

"No way," Natsu argued, "Mine was louder and more dragon-like! Yours sounded like a baby lizard! It was worse than Gray's!"

"Hey!" Gray defended himself, "Mine was great! In fact, I think it beats both of you. Mine travelled better."

"Bull!" Gajeel snapped, "Mine was the best! It was the loudest!"

The three started bickering until Erza got annoyed and snapped, "Boys! We are here on an important mission! Keep it together and act like a proper team!"

Gray and Natsu answered with their best Happy impression, "A-aye sir!" While Gajeel only looked away and made a _tch_ sound.

"...Alright," Hiccup said after a second, "So if we find anything or something happens, give the signal and keep giving it until we all arrive to your location. Those who find them, give the signal along with them, so that there would be a lot of noise coming from one place. In a few hours I'll give the signal and we'll head home. So pair up, and make sure that each group has at least one torch."

Everyone paired up with each other. Natsu, Happy, and Lucy, Pantherlily, Gajeel, and Levy, Hiccup and Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout, Gray and Juvia, Erza and Erling, Wendy, Charle, and Freja, and Alva and Eret.

Not every group had a torch though.

In order to save supplies, some of the Mages were using their magic. Natsu, obviously, lit himself a small flame that kept the darkness at bay. Levy summoned the word _Light. _Everyone else carried a torch, ready to light.

"Now remember," Hiccup said in a stern tone, "This is an old mine. We have no idea how stable these tunnels are or what's in them. Be careful and avoid fights when you can (Natsu and Gajeel looked slightly downtrodden at that). But if you can't run or avoid, make the battle quick, we want to be efficient. We have a lot of ground to cover. Got it? Good. Now let's go!"

The groups separated down several different paths, some starting out the same but branching off as they got farther in.

Gajeel, Levy, and Pantherlily found themselves in a rather narrow tunnel. Pantherlily, not in his Combat Form, walked with ease, as did Levy. Gajeel, however, had to shuffle sideways because his body was too broad.

He cursed as he shuffled along the wall, "This is impossible," he grumbled.

"Oh," Pantherlily chided, "Stop complaining."

"Says you! You're like three inches wide! You've got plenty of room!"

"It's not that bad, Gajeel," Levy said kindly.

He scoffed at her, "You can't exactly have an opinion on this either, _Shrimp._"

He grinned and Levy blew out through her nose in irritation, keeping _Light _well in front of them in order to see their path.

Meanwhile, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were forging ahead in a very wide tunnel.

"This passage feels huge," Lucy remarked.

"Yeah," Happy said nervously, "I feel like it's bigger than it should be."

"I know!" Natsu said suddenly, looking very excited and making Happy and Lucy nervous.

"What?" Lucy asked slowly.

"Here," he said, shuffling sideways until he touched the wall on his left. His left hand rested on the stone,completely outstretched. He held out his right arm, grinning, "Now, Luce, you go over and touch the other wall with your right hand and extend your arm to meet mine!"

Confused, Lucy did as he said, resting her right hand on the tunnel wall, both her arms outstretched.

"Why..?" She started to ask, but stopped when she saw Natsu's grin. "What?"

"Now we know!" He said excitedly, and Lucy and Happy suddenly realized what he did.

There was several feet between Natsu's right hand and Lucy's left, and then the distance of their arms from the walls.

"It's about two and a half people wide!"

"Two and a half?" Happy asked.

"Oh yeah," Lucy piped up, suddenly remembering something, "That's right! If you stretch out your arms, it should be about equal to your body height. So if my arms are completely stretched like they are now, that's how tall I am. Same for Natsu," She looked at him, impressed, "Wow Natsu, good job for figuring that out."

"Natsu figured something out!? On his own?!" Happy cried, "Is the world ending?"

Lucy giggled while Natsu huffed defiantly, "I can have good ideas!"

"Like that one in Edolas where you dressed me up in some weird costume?" Lucy scoffed.

"That was your fault!" Natsu defended, "You weren't sexy enough!"

"What was that?" Lucy snapped.

In another tunnel, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, and Stormfly rumbled along. Hiccup held the lit torch in front of him, sweeping it from side to side occasionally.

Toothless growled in complaint.

"I know, Bud," Hiccup said kindly, patting Toothless's head, "But you can't use your sound-vision. The others might think something's wrong."

"These tunnels are pretty big," Astrid remarked.

"How so?"

"Oh," Astrid said with an air of sarcasm, "I'm sure that it's perfectly normal for these tunnels to be able to fit two Vikings walking side-by-side with two dragons in tow."

"You know what?" Hiccup said slowly as he swept the torch again, "You're right. I don't see why this tunnel has to be so big."

"Maybe to fit minecarts?" Astrid offered.

"Yeah... Maybe. Let's just be sure to keep our eyes peeled."

Wendy, Charle, and Freja had found one of the smaller tunnels.

"Good thing everyone on this team is so tiny!" Freja said cheerily.

Wendy looked down and felt a small twang of sadness. She knew that that hadn't been what the Viking meant, but it still sort of stung.

"Hmm," Charle said, "I have a bad feeling..."

"What do you mean?" Wendy asked, "Do you see something?"

Charle was quiet for a second, "No."

"See something?" Freja asked, "But I'm the one holding the torch. She should be able to see fine."

"I don't see in that matter," Charle corrected.

"Then how do you see?"

Charle huffed, "It's difficult. Sometimes I can see into the future."

Freja was impressed, "So you can predict the future? Who will I marry?"

"It doesn't really work like that," Wendy offered.

"It comes and goes," Charle explained, "Most of the time it's in small flashes. They don't always make sense at first, but afterwards everything is made clear. Other times they're just hunches. For example, if two people sat down I might be able to determine their topic of conversation, but I can't just predict the future anytime I want."

"I see," Freja said thoughtfully, "So this bad feeling, is this just an _eh, probably nothing _bad feeling or an _actual prophetic bad feeling_ bad feeling?"

"The latter," Charle answered stiffly.

"And these..._feelings,_" She emphasized the word, "Are usually right?"

"Spot on," Wendy said, "Most of the time. I've learned to trust her."

"Great," Freja said sarcastically, "I love when people have trustworthy bad feelings. It always ends well."

Others were getting the same feeling.

"I don't like this..." Erling said slowly as he carried the torch, walking in front of Erza.

"Neither do I," She agreed, "Have you ever been in these mines?"

Erling shook his head as his dragon, Victor, slowly lumbered behind them. "No. My great-grandfather was a miner here, but I myself have never been in the mines. No need."

"So these mines are not in use?" Erza pressed.

Erling cast a curious glance at her before answering, "No. After they went out of use, we never bothered with them."

"But you have dragons now," Erza pointed out, "Not only would you be able to reach the tops and access more iron, but also be more efficient?"

Erling was quiet for a moment. Finally, he said "I guess so. We can supply ourselves fine with what we have now, so we had no need to come back here until now."

"Mm." Erza nodded and they walked on in silence.

Meanwhile, Snotlout and Fishlegs were bickering over who held the torch while their two dragons trailed behind them.

"I'm taller, so I should hold it!" Snotlout barked, snatching the torch from Fishlegs.

Fishlegs quickly grabbed it back and argued "No! You're the better fighter in this group! If something happens, you'll need to see."

"Ha! So you admit I'm a better fighter!"

"Of course you are," Fishlegs explained impatiently, "But I'm twice as smart."

"Not true!" Snotlout defended.

Fishlegs raised an eyebrow, "What is the attack power of a Groncle compared to its jaw strength?"

"Uh, um," Snotlout stumbled over his words while Fishlegs smiled smugly, "Psh, it's useless facts anyway!" He snapped, "Now give me the torch!"

"No!"

The two bickered back and forth, until Snotlout made a mad grab for the torch. But Fishlegs was expecting it and held tight. The two pulled back and forth like two toddlers fighting over a toy until Snotlout smirked and said "You want it? Fine," And let go.

Fishlegs stumbled back. He regained his balance but dropped the torch in an ever so inconvenient puddle.

The torch sizzled out and they were left in complete darkness.

"Way to go, Fish_brains_!"

"What are you talking about?" Fishlegs snapped, turning in the approximate direction where Snotlout was standing, "_You _made me fall back, causing me to drop it. If anything, it's _both _our faults."

"But mostly yours," Snotlout pointed out stubbornly.

"Ugh!" Fishlegs groaned in frustration, "It doesn't matter! What does matter is that we have no light! We can't see."

"Hookfang," Snotlout said suddenly.

There was a disgruntled noise from Hookfang, then a _whoosh_ and a ball of fire lighting the way before them. It only lasted a second before becoming pitch black again.

"Snotlout!" Fishlegs cried in anger.

"What?" Came the cool reply, "You said that you couldn't see, so I gave you light. You're welcome."

"That was a very stupid idea! We don't know what's in these tunnels! For all we know, that fire could have woken Gajeel's dad up from a very nice sleep..."

"Psh, how do we even know his dad's in here? And how do you know we're looking for that metal dude's dad anyway?"

"Oh gee," Fishlegs said sarcastically, "We're in an iron mine, and one of the Dragon Slayers is an Iron Dragon Slayer, and he's one of the guys who is looking for his dad. I wonder what type of dragon and whose parent might we be looking for?"

"Shut up!" Snotlout snapped in embarrassment.

Fishlegs rolled his eyes and felt around for Meatlug until he found her head, "Come on girl, let's see if we can find anything."

The two walked on, with Snotlout grumbling to Hookfang behind them.

Suddenly, the dragons perked up. Both Vikings turned to their mounts, struggling to comfort them in the dark.

"It's okay, girl," Fishlegs said softly, "I'm sure it's nothing."

"What is it, Hookfang?" Snotlout asked eagerly, "Do you smell something?"

Hookfang growled in response, Meatlug making a noise in her throat as well.

Then Fishlegs and Snotlout heard it; maniacal cackling, like that of a crazy person.

"What is it?" Snotlout asked, trying to sound brave and failing.

"What if it's Loki?" Fishlegs cried, "Come to drive us mad?"

"Why would he do that?" Snotlout demanded.

"I don't know!" Fishlegs said in exasperation, "Who knows, we might've stumbled upon one of his sacred doorways."

The four waited in silence as the cackling grew louder. As it came closer, a light could be seen, bobbing far down the tunnel in front of them. It came closer and closer, growing brighter and the laughter louder.

"This is it!" Fishlegs cried, clinging onto Meatlug, who seemed just as frightened, "We're going to be driven mad in these caves and never find a way out!"

"For the record," Snotlout said, "If we do get stuck in here, I'm eating your dragon first."

"No you're not!" Fishlegs clung to Meatlug even tighter.

Before the two could bicker any more, the laughter piqued in front of them and they averted their eyes as the light swished by their faces, almost blinding them.

"Well, well, well," Drawled a familiar male voice.

"What do we have here?" Finished an equally familiar female voice.

Both boys perked up and turned to face the twins and their dragon.

"Ruffnut!" The two boys cried happily.

"I'm in here too!" Tuffnut cried angrily, only to be promptly ignored.

"How did you find us?" Fishlegs asked, "We never signalled."

"Belive me," Tuffnut said, "It was an accident. We were waking along the tunnel until we heard you guys yelling. I thought that two yaks had gotten stuck in here."

"Ha-ha," Snotlout said, "Very funny."

"So why were you just sitting here in the dark?" Ruffnut asked.

"Fishlegs dropped the torch," Snotlout said.

"I did not!" Fishlegs snapped, "We were fighting and we dropped it. So now we don't have a torch."

"So why don't you just relight it?" Tuffnut asked.

"Because it's wet," Fishlegs said patiently, "It-"

"Could take hours for it to get dry," Snotlout interrupted smartly. Fishlegs glared at him.

"So you don't have a light?" Tuffnut asked in a mocking tone, "And people call _us _idiots."

Snotlout opened his mouth to say something, looked at Ruffnut who was smiling at the two, and then shut it.

"You could come with us," Ruffnut offered in a suspiciously flirtatious tone.

"But we were supposed to split up into groups," Tuffnut argued.

"Hey" Snotlout said, "We would love to go our separate ways, but, sadly, we have no torch and therefore we cannot see. Would you have us wandering the tunnels forever?"

"Yes," Tuffnut said with a smirk.

After a short discussion, Tuffnut walked in front with Barf and Belch, leading the way to a side tunnel previously passed. Ruffnut, Fishlegs, and Snotlout weren't far behind, Hookfang and Meatlug trailing after them.

Alva and Eret forged ahead in the tunnels, feeling vulnerable in the big open tunnel. They had taken a direct tunnel and were further in. Skullcrusher and Alva's dragon, Marrow, were getting more and more skittish. Skullcrusher kept sniffing the air and growling.

"Something's wrong..." Eret said slowly. "I haven't been doing the whole "friends with dragons" business for long, but I know enough from past experiences to know when an animal senses danger."

"You're right," Alva agreed after a moment, "I don't know why, but I feel like we're trespassing."

"Yeah. Wait!" Eret said quietly, holding his hand up in a stopping gesture, standing still. Alva and the dragons followed suit; completely silent and still.

Alva was about to ask what was wrong when she heard it: a high-pitched noise and the sound of crumbling rocks, almost as if a thousand axes were whirring and chewing up the rock. Her wide eyes met Eret's and they suddenly understood why the dragons were so uneasy.

Meanwhile, Gray and Juvia were slightly squished in a tunnel that was only just big enough for them to walk single file. Their tunnel had several paths leading from it, riddled with holes. They varied in sizes, going from small enough to fit a young child, to big enough it a Forest Vulcan at full height.

Both of them felt a nervous vibe in the air and as Juvia trailed close behind Gray, she gripped his right hand tight, his left hand holding the torch out in front of them.

"Juvia feels uneasy," Juvia said in the thick silence, before only broken by the crackle of the flames and their footsteps.

"I know," Gray said, giving her hand a small, comforting squeeze, "I feel it too and I don't like it. Remember how all the dragons were skittish when we first landed?"

Juvia nodded, "Yes. Animals have a better survival instinct than humans, right?"

"Right," Gray said, "So if they're worried, then we should be too."

"But Juvia and Gray-sama are Mages," Juvia tried a confident tone, "Fairy Tail Mages. Juvia knows that she and Gray-sama will not lose to whatever is in here."

He smiled, "That's the spirit. And who knows, maybe the reason why the dragons were scared is because Metallicana's in here."

"Maybe..."

They trailed on in uneasy silence for a little bit longer, unsure of what might pop out of one of the tunnels that lined their way.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by a whirring noise, almost as if a Wood-chop Lacrima had been used on rock. The noise grew closer and the two Mages stayed still, trying to figure where it was coming from and where to run if needed.

The noise seemed to be coming from a tunnel on their left, so Gray dragged Juvia to a tunnel further up on the right, found a miraculously convenient niche, pushed her against it with his own body, covering her mouth with his hand.*

Juvia was blushing rather profoundly (as Gray had lost his shirt somewhere along the way and she stuffed it into her bag to give to later) and her head was rapidly filling with Gray-themed fantasies. Neither of them spoke or moved. They hardly dared to breathe. They kept waiting for the noise to pass them as it kept getting louder, signalling its close proximity.

There was a sudden burst of sound. They recognized it as rocks collapsing and exploding outwards. Apparently the thing creating the noise hadn't been coming through a tunnel, it had been creating a new one.

The whirring noise stopped and there was a horrid slithering, the sound of scales sliding across the rocks.

It kept coming closer and Gray pressed himself and Juvia even further into the niche, both of them feeling sore, cramped, and uncomfortable. But they both knew that the thing coming closer was most likely a dragon and they weren't exactly sure how one would fight one of these newer dragons. The silent agreement was to wait and see what it was. If it attacked, they fought. If not, then they could regroup and figure out a game plan and signal the others.

The horrible sounds came down their tunnel and Gray and Juvia stopped breathing altogether.

The thing making the horrible noises was in fact a dragon. It had a huge head with rows of whirring teeth. It seemed to have its eyes on the side of its head and from their point, it looked like it was blind. The entire eye was milky white and didn't seem to be looking at anything. The dragon's colour was a light blue with a grey underside and red spikes. Its body consisted of one long, slithering tail with the same colouring and spikes. It had tiny red wings that were folded against its body.

The horrible dragon paused by their niche, sniffing for a moment.

Juvia, suddenly getting an idea, silently transformed into her Water Body, wrapping herself around Gray to mask their scents. Gray was a little surprised but understood what she was doing and went with it.

The dragon sniffed for a moment longer, then apparently decided that there was nothing of interest there and moved on, slithering down the tunnel until it veered off, digging a new one with its whirring teeth that acted as a wood chipper for rock.

They waited a moment longer, just to make sure that it was really gone. Then, Juvia let Gray go, turning back to herself. Both of them were gasping for breath, only just now remembering to breathe. For a minute, they stood panting, until Gray picked up the torch that he had dropped when they had squeezed themselves into the small space. Luckily, Juvia had managed to keep it dry and they were still able to see.

"What should we do?" Juvia asked after she got her breath back properly, "Signal for help?"

"No," Gray said, "The dragon would hear us too and chances are that it would get to us first."

Juvia nodded, "Right. But how would we let the others know about the dragon? Juvia thinks that there might be more..." She glanced around her nervously, feeling as if the dragon was still watching her every move.

Gray awkwardly placed his hand on Juvia's shoulder in an effort to comfort her. "We'll find a way," He said reassuringly, "I'm sure that we'll run into someone sooner or later and we can figure something out with them."

Juvia smiled, "Right!"

Eret and Alva sprinted down the tunnel, their dragons easily keeping pace. They could barely see, the torch was waving around wildly, and the shadows made everything look warped at their speed. They had no idea where they were going, only to get away from the Whispering Death that had cornered them. Luckily, their dragons had reacted quickly, Marrow breathing fire at the tunnel ceiling to cause a small avalanche of dust and rock, while Skullcrusher rammed into the rogue dragon, giving them just enough time to escape.

"Is it still after us?" Alva panted.

"Probably," Eret called back, "These dragons tend to keep grudges."

"Great!" Alva snapped, "Well, is it still behind us?"

Eret cast a glance behind his shoulder, but past the dragons, it was too dark to see. "Can't tell!" He answered.

"Even better!" Alva said sarcastically. She stopped running and Marrow bumped into her, almost knocking Alva off of her feet.

She righted herself and looked behind her. Eret and Skullcrusher had stopped a few feet after her and waited with bated breath.

"Come here," She said softly, gesturing to Eret without moving her head, still staring off into the darkness behind the.

Slowly and quietly, Eret came forward until he was standing beside Alva. After a moment of complete silence, he whispered, "I don't see anything."

"Exactly," Said Alva quietly, "It's not behind us."

"Then does that mean that we've lost it?"

Alva shook her head, her eyes still not moving, "No. Like you said earlier, Whispering Deaths tend to hold grudges. So why did it just suddenly disappear? We're in its home turf, it should be at an advantage."

Suddenly, Eret's eyes widened and he grabbed Alva's hand, sprinting in the same direction as before, the dragons leading.

"What?" Alva cried, who had wrenched her hand from Eret and ran alongside him, "Did you see something?"

"No," He replied in a hurried tone, "But I did realize something. We're in a mountain riddled with holes, tunnels, and caves, plus tons of space to make new ones. It hasn't stopped following us, it's just hiding itself!"

Alva's eyes widened with realization like Eret's and she picked up her pace, "So it could be anywhere! We have to find the others!"

Natsu, Happy, and Lucy wandered down the tunnel, unaware of the danger that some of the other groups were facing. But, as they went further and further into the mountain, Natsu started sniffing around and jumping at small noises.

"Natsu," Lucy asked after a pebble had gone skidding forward, kicked by one of them, and Natsu whirled around, his fists ablaze, "What is wrong with you? You're acting almost as skittish as the dragons!"

"There's something in these tunnels," Natsu said, "And I don't like it, whatever it is."

"But," Happy interjected, raising a paw, "Isn't that what we're hoping for? To find Metallicana?"

"Yeah," Natsu replied, glaring off in front of them, now only one hand holding flames in order to see, "But this is different. Metallicana would have a strong scent, because he's so big, and he'd smell sorta like Gajeel. But the only trace of Gajeel's scent is long gone; I haven't smelt it since before we went into that big tunnel."

"So," Lucy said slowly, "Do you smell something then?"

Natsu nodded, "Yeah, and I don't like the smell. It reeks of old scales and rocks and damp caves."

"Do you think it could maybe be Metallicana?" Happy asked hopefully, "It has been fourteen years, maybe his scent changed?"

"No," Natsu replied promptly, "Even if he had been down here for fourteen years, he would still smell like himself. I don't really know what that is, exactly, but I know enough to smell him. There's nothing here to signal his presence, just the old iron left in the mines."

"So if it's not Metallicana," Lucy said softly, "Then what could it be? Another dragon?"

Natsu opened his mouth to answer, but whirled around and glared at a tunnel that neither Lucy nor Happy had noticed that led off to their right. They waited in silence, until they heard hurried footsteps and two people panting.

Natsu relaxed but didn't stop glaring into the darkness. A second later, Lucy and Happy saw a light bobbing, becoming bigger and brighter. Soon they could make out two silhouettes; one hour-glass figured female and a well-muscled male figure. As they came closer they could make out their features.

Gray and Juvia ran into their path, stopping and catching their breath. Natsu glared at Gray, "What are you doing? We were supposed to split up!"

"Yeah," Gray wheezed, "About that..."

"Dragons," Juvia said. She had gotten her wind back and was able to speak clearly, "Juvia and Gray-sama ran into a dragon."

"And you didn't fight it?" Natsu asked.

"Last time I checked," Gray said sarcastically, "Not even the Dragon Slayers could take a dragon out."

Natsu stepped forward, his fists clenched. Before he could do anything, Lucy stepped between them and put a hand on Natsu's chest.

"That's enough," She said with enough authority to almost rival Erza. Both boys backed down, "That's better." She sighed then spoke again, "It's good that you guys didn't fight it. Chances are that they might be pack hunters. If there's one, there's sure to be more."

"So what should we do?" Asked a frustrated Natsu, "What if we run into one?"

"Run away," Juvia advised, "Like Love Rival said, there most likely could be others down here."

Lucy frowned, "Please don't call me that."

"But," Natsu argued, "We could take them down! All of the dragons so far have fire-based powers or whatever. And they're a lot smaller than the ones we faced in Crocus! There's no way that any of the dragons here could rival those guys."

"You do have a point," Gray said grudgingly, "The thing we saw was pretty small, but terrifying enough. Hell, it was even blind!"

"Still," Lucy said, "We shouldn't fight it. What if we attract more? Or cause a cave-in? I'm sure that the tunnels throughout the mountain have lessened the stability and the dragons won't be helping in fixing it."

"Aye!" Happy agreed, "We should just get everyone together and leave!"

"Good idea, Happy," Lucy smiled, then turned to the boys, "We're going to find the others and you're going to come along quietly."

Both boys grumbled their disagreement, but knew that the girls and Happy were right.

They walked through the tunnels, Natsu keeping his hand aflame and Juvia put out their torch. Natsu made sure to keep aware of any presences: friends or foe.

At the same time, Alva, Eret, Skullcrusher, and Marrow were still sprinting along the tunnels, no clue as to whether they were going deeper into the mountain or closer to the exit.

"How big _are _these tunnels?" Alva panted, "Surely we should've found someone by now! Or at least run into another Whispering Death!"

"I know," Eret wheezed back, "We've been running for a while. We should've found _something _by now!"

Hardly a second had passed before two people and a dragon came barreling out of a tunnel leading off to their right.

The two groups had almost smashed into each other but luckily the dragons had been leading.

When everyone slowed down and adjusted their eyes to the additional torchlight, they were both surprised and relieved to see the other.

"Eret! Alva!" Hackett sighed in relief, "I thought it 'twas a Whispering Death after us! The mines are filled with the nasty things!"

"We noticed," Alva wheezed.

"Are you alright?" Eret asked, "Are you able to fight?"

"Yes," Erza replied, "Although that may not be the best idea."

"Agreed," Hackett said, "These tunnels are already unstable. It would not do well to do more damage to them."

"Okay," Eret said, "So what now?"

Erza stepped forward, "We should find the others and leave as fast as we can. Obviously Metalicana isn't in here."

The others were impressed with her authority and nodded their consent.

Alva spoke up, "But how do we keep track? Most of these tunnels are identical and we have no idea as to where they go. There are about a million different passageways!"

"We'll keep a map," Erza replied, "That way we can keep a record of where we've been."

"That's brilliant!" Hackett said.

"But will it work?" Eret asked dubiously, scratching Skullcrusher's head almost subconsciously, "There are just so many turns and tunnels and dead-ends and probably some random drops!"

Erza smiled slyly, "We used this same strategy in the Grand Magic Games preliminaries in a far more intricate maze."

"Intricate?" Eret laughed, "How could it be more intricate than this?" He called out the last part loudly and very sarcastically.

"Eret!" Hackett snapped, "Any louder and the Whispering Deaths will be upon us!"

"Hey!" Alva interjected, stepping between the men, her smallest dagger in her hand, "That's enough from you two! We're all really high-strung right now and it doesn't help that we're in the middle of a dragon's nest, and _not _the one we intended. So, I suggest that we listen to the only Mage present and entertain her idea. Chances are that it'll work! And," She turned to Eret, "If she says that she's been in more intricate mazes I'm sure that she has! So everyone just settle down and we'll find everyone soon enough and then we can leave. The sooner we stop fighting, the sooner we can get going!"

Eret glared at the older Vikings then huffed in annoyance, "Fine, let's get going. Who's going to do the maps?"

"I will," Hackett said, "I'm good at maps."

"Good," Erza said, "Then we can get going." Then she whirled around and started down the tunnel where they had already been going, continuing on their original path.

The others hesitated for a moment before Alva whistled, "That woman has the heart of a warrior and the spirit of a dragon. I'm surprised she's not married!"

"She's not?" Eret asked, "I can't believe it, how do you know?"

Alva snorted, "I asked the little blue girl and that Exceed or whatever about relationship customs. None of them are married." Then she walked after Erza. Her dragon, the men, and their dragons followed her.

"Wait!" Eret called, then lowered his voice so that Erza couldn't hear, "So you mean to tell me that _none _of them are married?"

"No, I was surprised too," Alva said with a shrug.

"But, the fiery one with the pink hair, Natsu, and the blonde girl, Lucy," Hackett tried.

"Nope."

"Or what about that blue water girl, Juvia? And Gray, the ice dude?" Eret asked.

"Uh-uh. She's just really attached."

"Or maybe that younger blue-haired one, the really smart one...Levy? With that Gajeel fellow?" Hackett poked.

Alva threw up her hands as they walked along, "I'm telling you, they're _all _not married, they're not even together!"

"Really?" Both men asked in wonder.

"Wow," Eret remarked, "Courting customs must be very different than here."

Somewhere deeper in the mountain, Gajeel perked up. He stood facing the darkness in front of them, rigid. He didn't move and he hardly breathed.

After a moment of silence, Levy asked softly, "What is it, Gajeel?"

It took him a moment to respond, and when he did, he was very brisk, "I don't know. I don't like it."

"Maybe it could be Metallicana?" Levy asked hopefully.

"No," He replied instantly, "It's not him. I don't even think that he's in here. The further we go, the less sure I am."

Levy and Pantherlily shared a look.

"But," Pantherlily said, "What could it be?"

Gajeel sniffed before answering, "Honestly, it smells like dragon. Not any dragon that I know, but it's definitely dragons."

"_Dragons?_" Levy asked, "As in plural?"

"Unless it's one huge dragon, which I hope it isn't."

"Maybe we should alert the others," Pantherlily suggested.

"No," Levy said, "If there is anything in here, sending out the signal would only alert it to our presence. We may be lucky enough that whatever is in here hasn't noticed us yet."

"Fair enough," Gajeel grumbled, "But let's get moving. It's not safe to stay in one place too long."

"There goes the backup plan," Pantherlily mumbled to himself.

The three of them started walking forward, Levy still holding up _Light _to make sure they all could see. Suddenly, Gajeel stopped and grabbed Levy's arm, Pantherlily stopping behind them.

"What is it now?" Pantherlily tried to sound annoyed but now he was a little bit worried.

"Sh!" Gajeel hissed, glaring straight ahead. Pantherlily almost asked again, but then his ears twitched. He could hear a noise, a whirring noise, coming closer and closer. The tunnel they were in was curved, so the thing was blocked from their sight.

Suddenly, it turned, and their blood ran cold.

It faced them head on with milky eyes that rested on a head as tall as Levy herself, sprouting spikes and baring rows of razor sharp teeth that whirred together, promising to make anything it came into contact with into mush.

It stood still for a second, as if confused.

"Run," Gajeel whispered as quietly as possible, the dragon stirring, "Run!" He yelled.

He shoved Levy in front of him, running back the way they came. Pantherlily sprouted his wings, flying above and glancing back at the thing that bore down on them. It was terrible, nothing like the dragons that they had seen so far. This one was angry and rogue, wanting nothing but to get them out-

"That's it!" Pantherlily realized, "We must be in their nest!"

"Of course!" Levy wheezed, "That's why Gajeel smells so many, and why there are so many tunnels of all different sizes! It's their home, they must burrow here and we intrud- ah!"

Levy tripped and fell down, the _Light _going out. For a moment, it was pitch black and Pantherlily felt almost relieved. Then he remembered the dragon's eyes, how they seemed to see nothing.

"Keep going!" Gajeel yelled. Even though it was pitch black, his heightened senses allowed him enough to navigate. Without hardly stopping, he scooped Levy up and continued running as fast as he could, using everything he had to try and get them out.

He could hear Pantherlily's wings beating overhead and the sounds of rocks falling out of place and teeth whirring and a scaly body sliding over the ground and the sounds of their feet falling on the uneven rocks. He could see dark outlines of shapes, the light of Levy's hair and her dress, the minuscule glint of light reflected in his piercings. He could smell Levy and her fear, smell his own sweat, Pantherlily's fur and wings, and the reek of sun-deprived scales and stone and blood. He could feel Levy shaking in his arms, the sweat sliding down his face and arms, the sharpness of Levy's short hair whipping against his bare skin, the air rushing past him and above him. He could taste the dank air of the tunnel, the saltiness of sweat dripped into his mouth, the adrenaline in the air, and the dryness of his mouth.

He focused everything on trying to get them out and away from the dragon chasing them. Honestly, he could've beaten it, easily, in different circumstances. He didn't want to chance it, not when they were in its nest, surrounded by unstable rock and an untrustworthy light source. Gajeel was not one to run away from things, but he feared that Levy's fall had hurt her more than she let on, they were lucky that the tunnel was big enough for him to carry her safely.

The noises behind them kept on persistently, following each turn they made. Left, right, right, left, right, left, left, left, right, until they had no idea where they were. Gajeel trusted his nose, following any scent of fresh air, never pausing.

Pantherlily kept up easily, glancing back even though vision wasn't great. A dark mass could still be seen pursuing them, urging the trio to go faster.

"Almost there," Gajeel panted, "We're almost there..." He wasn't lying; they were very close to where they had first landed. What Gajeel planned to do when he go there, he had no idea. Only that they had a chance in the open.

When a thing prick of light shone in the distance, the three felt hope.

Levy really had been hurt, and she was glad that Gajeel was carrying her. Levy's ankle throbbed painfully and she feared that she may have sprained it. The thought, however, was at the back of her mind. At the moment, she was thinking of the best way to escape once they reached the exit. No doubt that Gajeel would send Pantherlily down carrying her while he tried to fight off the dragon himself. Levy wouldn't be much good in battle, but she wasn't useless. Gajeel cared little about collateral damage, so there was a large chance that he could accidentally cause a cave-in, trapping their friends with the other dragons.

The light ahead grew bigger and brighter, as did their hope. Even Levy could start to smell fresh air and she found herself thinking harder. There had to be a way to protect their friends. Maybe cast a _Shield_? But would she be able to create one big enough, even with her second origin unlocked? Since she hadn't been in any major fights nor took part in the Grand Magic Games, she hadn't really gotten a chance to use it. She wasn't even sure what she was capable of now.

The idea seemed to be getting better and better. _Yes, _she thought, _That's just what I'll do. Gajeel can fight off the dragon, Pantherlily can keep him in check, and they can both give me enough cover to hold the spell. Gajeel's not going to like it, but I'm sure that I ca_

She was abruptly cut off from a sudden screech and the sensation of the walls around her collapsing.

Gajeel reached out an arm to grab Lily, hugged both him and Levy close to his body, morphed into his scales, and dropped to his knees. He shielded them with his body, knowing exactly what was to come. They wouldn't make it in time, no way. The best he could do was protect them as well as he could.

Levy only had time to say "No," before the walls came crashing down around them.

***You know, I was really debating whether or not I should **"**accidentally**"** leave out the word **"**hand**"**. Funny how one word can make such a difference, eh?**


End file.
